Manager facing headaches over the form of Harry Maguire and David de Gea, Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence and the De Jong transfer saga
A fortnight watching United’s new manager, Erik ten Hag, leading training has revealed an intelligent man whose priority is to coach. The Dutchman’s emerging side play in free-flowing style and he has a sharp manner with the media. These are the absolute base materials for any manager to succeed at a club that remain the country’s record title holders but became a laughing stock last season. United’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa in Perth on Saturday night was the first failure to win in four tour matches in Thailand and Australia, fixtures in which United scored 13 goals while conceding three times with a still-suspect defence. As Ten Hag knows, this is the phoney war. The real stuff starts when Brighton come to Old Trafford on 7 August before a trip to Brentford and the visit of Liverpool: two wins and a draw from those three games would be a fine start. Yet Ten Hag is still to work with Cristiano Ronaldo because of a family issue and his No 1 transfer target, Frenkie de Jong, wishes to remain at Barcelona. But Ten Hag’s job is to manage these headaches.
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