27 February 2023 , 11:06
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Gary Neville has lauded Erik ten Hag in the wake of Sunday's Carabao Cup triumph and believes the Dutchman is already as important to Manchester United as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are to their respective clubs.
Ten Hag has made a significant impact at Old Trafford since he was lured to the club from Ajax last summer and landed his first trophy with a 2-0 win over Newcastle at Wembley.
Sunday's victory ends United's six-year silverware drought and underlines just how far the club have come in a short period of time under Ten Hag, who endured a tough start to life in English football in the form of chastening back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Brentford in the opening weeks of the Premier League campaign.
Since then, United have been on an upward trajectory under Ten Hag and are challenging for major honours again. After taking in Sunday's win, Neville commended Ten Hag for establishing control at a club which was in disarray prior to his arrival.
And the former United full-back was quick to draw an analogy between his importance to Manchester United and that of Guardiola and Klopp to Manchester City and Liverpool after lauding Ten Hag's ability to make big decisions.
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Neville told Sky Sports: "The big things, leaving Marcus Rashford out after doing so well for being late, the way in which he handled the Ronaldo situation and leaving out Harry Maguire, those are massive decisions and could have quite easily gone the wrong way.
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Gary Neville believes Erik ten Hag has already established himself as the most important figure at Man United (Sky Sports)"But I think he has assumed control of the club again. You think of Guardiola and Klopp and know they are the most important people at the football club, but Ten Hag today and in the last few months has just taken control of Manchester United again. The fans love Casemiro and love Rashford, but when he lifted the trophy, they know who the most important person is."
With Ten Hag at the helm, United have regained their place at the summit of the Premier League and are still within touching distance of Arsenal, who are just ahead of reigning champions Manchester City.
The Red Devils are also through to the last-16 of the Europa League after dispatching Barcelona last week and could book a spot in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.
And while Ten Hag has been keen to temper expectations in regards to silverware, he admitted his side could "draw inspiration" from their maiden trophy triumph. He said: "First you have to win the first one, and that is what we did. I think we can get inspiration from this and confidence that we can do it. We said at the start that we wanted to restore Manchester United by winning trophies and this is the first one."