Analysing Rio Ferdinand's 6 point plan for Erik ten Hag's Manchester United

"It’s so sad to see because it is not the club I played for. It is not what Manchester United stood for when I played for them, it is just chalk and cheese. I don’t see a Manchester United team out there fighting or playing with pride." -  Roy Keane

After a season of utter embarrassment, this cowardly Manchester United squad will have a new set of coaches barking orders at them next season as Erik ten Hag has finally been confirmed as Manchester United manager.  

Following the disastrous, pathetic, abomination of a footballing display away at Liverpool it was inevitable that the club would announce ten Hag to try and get the fans back onside.  Following the announcement, Rio Ferdinand felt the need to try and get his points across about how the new manager should be approaching the job prior to the defeat to Arsenal live on BT Sport, so I would like to look in depth at his 6 point plan and just how that could be achieved at Manchester United.

Before I start going into the plan specifically, I would like to make a few things crystal clear.  The first being that this football club is a shambles from top to bottom.  This is nothing more than an investment for venture capitalists trying to put their name on something big, with absolute no care in the world about the success of the team.  So lots of the changes need to come from the top.  Early indications at Newcastle have shown how investment must be combined with intelligent footballing people making the decisions at the top.  With a good football centred leadership balance with experienced businessmen allowing the club to thrive both on and off the pitch, the opportunities are truly limitless at such a huge club like Manchester United.  A tell tale sign of just how serious the club are about restructuring the hierarchy to focus more on the football will be shown in the seriousness and freedom Ralf Ragnick is given in his consultancy role.  As seen during his time as interim boss, he clearly has an array of thoughts on how this club needs to be changed from top to bottom and allowing him to have a big role in this would show that the football-oblivious businessmen at the top are starting to care a little bit more about something more than their investments.

Now onto Rio's plan.

1. Set the culture

This was something I believed had been achieved by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with the players seeming to work hard on the pitch, young talent was often rewarded with minutes on the pitch and the squad all seemed to play with smiles on their faces. 

Of course, we have now seen that Ole may have been the glue keeping the unity of the dressing room together (in the media at least) but this does not mean the culture was ever right during Ole's reign.  Erik ten Hag is used to rewarding young players with Ajax continuing to be one of the most famous "academies of global football" so the rewarding youngsters part shouldn't be too dissimilar to his thinking at Ajax.

However, the real challenge in terms of setting the culture for Erik will be finding a way to either manage or remove the cancerous, entitled bunch of snakes that have continually had more power than the manager and leaked important squad information over the last few years.  Some may say Pogba and Lingard leaving on frees at the end of this season should sort that problem, but in reality we know there are far too many in this bunch that are just as detrimental in that dressing room.  And with lots of these on long term contracts, without any interest from other clubs in prying them away from the theatre of dreams, it is likely that Erik is going to have to find a way to get to set this culture in a very firm way, with the hope that he will be given the freedom to get rid of anyone he and Ragnick may believe cause more issues than their talent makes worthwhile.

Contrary to the opinion of Jamie Carragher, I believe that assuming he sees out the last year on his current contract, Cristiano Ronaldo could have a very big part to play in this.  Assuming he buys into Erik ten Hag's way of going about his business, who better to have as a role model in terms of attitude towards training, nutrition, professionalism, leadership and all round football intelligence than Cristiano?  I think it would be ridiculous to waste such a special player's wisdom in a dressing room of hopefully the players to bring the cub back to where it belongs.

One thing I think we all expect is the removal of Harry Maguire as captain.  Of course this will be a big kick in the teeth for Harry but this last season has proved his focus needs to be on keeping his form consistent and focusing on his own game.  So the selection of the next potential captain is likely to be Erik's first way of publicly illustrating the culture he would like to set.

2. Improve recruitment

I believe Rio was a little bit hasty with this one as this is a far more complex issue that Manchester United managers since Sir Alex have all seemed to get wrong, with Ed Woodward usually being the scapegoat (probably rightfully to be fair) for the staggering number of failures in the transfer window.

I do not believe this is something Erik ten Hag can impact too much in the first few years unless he takes a few from his time at Ajax, and this will be more to do with those above him being able to get the players he wants in a more swift and focused manner than LVG, Mourinho and Ole seemed to complain about.  

The introduction of John Murtough as director of football, Darren Fletcher as technical director and Ralf Ragnick now going into some sort of high level football consultant, it is likely that there will be at least some accountability placed on the shoulders of these 3 over the next few years when discussing recruitment.  As well as this, whoever replaces Jim Lawlor as chief scout is likely to be a big part of the new recruitment setup, however I am not inclined to comment on this without any real first hand knowledge of how important Jim was in each individual decision.

It is obviously very normal for clubs to have some hits and misses in the transfer market, but with the seemingly perfect recruitment at Manchester City and Liverpool, this is one of the areas where the football club have really fallen behind the Northwest rivals.

3. Structural reset

I had to watch Rio's discussion about this again and filter through a few articles to see what he was really trying to convey with this but I shall do my best to try and do this bit justice.

From what I could gather, this linked with many of my points about the recruitment, with the "structure" Rio was referring to being those involved in the higher level footballing decisions.  I have alluded to this before, but all the most successful football clubs at the moment (no matter how rich) have intelligent, football orientated people making some of the big footballing decisions rather than purely profit orientated businessmen.  

Manchester United could really take a leaf out of Erik ten Hag's current club Ajax when thinking about the boardroom structure.  Most famously, Edwin Van Der Sar as CEO at Ajax has helped protect the board's relationship with the fans and the players, with such a football orientated person at such a high level in the boardroom helping protect the balance of business and sports team.  

Although I don't think Manchester United will ever achieve anything close to that kind of unity while the Glazers continue to pretend they care about how their football team that plays with a circular ball connect with the fans; it would be very premature to judge the changes already made to the structure.  As previously mentioned, the introduction of a director of football, a technical director and a new CEO is undoubtedly a good decision to protect the footballing integrity of the club, regardless of who they put in there.  Also, Ragnick's consultancy role could be similar to his one with the Red Bull group, so there is hope that again that the purely business orientated structure is beginning to make way for football-focused individuals.

So this "reset" Rio is asking for is happening right now, but I'm unsure that it will ever be "perfect" while the Glazers are still the owners.  But we can live in hope that the creation of these football executive roles are not just new people to blame and can allow the club to achieve some meaningful changes from top to bottom.

4. Clear playing style

Now this is something Erik ten Hag and his coaching staff are likely to be held solely responsible for.  

Ignoring the calamitous reign of David Moyes, Manchester United managers have actually had quite a distinct playing style.  LVG's 100% possession, 0% thrill football wasn't taken to particularly well by the fans so Erik ten Hag will know the team will need to play with a little bit more flair and pnash than his fellow countryman's reds.  Jose's unique approach is a brand of football that you simply cannot play if you aren't going to win premier leagues and champions leagues at Manchester United and there is surely no chance Erik will try and play like this.  Ole's tricky counter attack reds who eventually crumbled due to their inability to soak up pressure defensively may have a few similarities.  For example, the pace of the attack is something he has followed at Ajax so this may be something to watch out for.  

The reason this was on Rio's list was because Guardiola's Manchester City, Klopp's Liverpool and to some extent now Tuchel's Chelsea and Conte's Spurs all have such clear regimes and footballing philosophies that it makes Manchester United look directionless.  Whether it is a system he is married to (like Conte and Tuchel), a brand of football (such as Pep's tiki-taka) or a unique way of using the ball (namely Klopp's use of Robertson and Trent as lead creators in the team), it is likely Ten Hag will need to make it clear early on what he wants his Manchester United to do better than anyone else.

I haven't watched enough of Ajax, nor do I know enough about his footballing philosophy other than his admiration for Cruyff (like Guardiola) to make predictions about this, so this will be interesting to watch unfold.

5. Embrace youth

This section is fairly straight forward, the expectation will be that he continues to develop the academy boys and even younger boys that have been bought over the last few seasons in the same way he did at Ajax.  Erik ten Hag and Petr Bosz are considered responsible for showcasing and developing the talents of Matthijs De Ligt, Davinson Sanchez, Donny Van De Beek and Frenkie De Jong who were all considered to have been on Manchester United's radar throughout most of their time at Ajax.

Looking at the current crop now, he is surely going to be focusing on getting the best out of Hannibal, Sancho, Elanga, Van De Beek, McTominay, Dalot, Henderson and Rashford in a similar way.  Of course he may not feel all of these players are right for the club and may have bigger plans for some of the players currently not with the first team, but I would be very surprised if he doesn't make the most of some of the hungry, younger players that he can mould into "his players" as they begin to reach their prime footballing years.

6. Develop players

I saw an interesting post on twitter, saying no player has got better since moving to Manchester United post Fergie.  While I completely disagree with this, the point is fair that lots of players are coming to Manchester United, showcasing glimpses of their talents and moving on in a very underwhelming fashion.

A key part of player development will be linked to recruitment as Erik will need to be singing the players he thinks are perfect for what he wants to do with the team and moulding them into a certain way rather than bringing in big names for the sake of it who know they are quite likely to outlast the manager if things are going wrong.

So I believe this point is a bit of a difficult one to evaluate as significant player development is very tricky to achieve if the recruitment is wrong or the playing style is constantly changing as it did between managers and multiple times during the end of Ole's reign and Ragnick's interim spell.

Conclusion

It's one of the toughest jobs in world football at the moment.  The club is an embarrassment from top to bottom and this isn't going to change overnight unless the club is sold and those in senior roles leave too.

However, with a new manager, lots of players leaving on frees at the end of their season, new footballing roles being created at a senior level, replacing the CEO, replacing the chief scouts and giving Ralf Ragnick (who has first hand knowledge of the club from a coaching point of view and a wealth of experience with the Red Bull group), there is a cause for some very hesitant optimism should everyone get the power to cause change as their roles would suggest.

It has been an incredibly hard season to be a Manchester United fan so any kind of optimism here has been typed through gritted teeth, and it is truly impossible to over-sell the difficulty this job will entail.  We all welcome Erik with open arms and let's hope he is the next bald manager to revolutionise a club in Manchester!