10 March 2024 , 10:08
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Erik ten Hag has revealed the four senior players who set the standards for the rest of the Manchester United squad on the training pitch at Carrington.
United have struggled for consistency this season and sit sixth in the Premier League following their 2-0 win over Everton on Saturday. They were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage and have lost 11 of their 28 league matches, leaving them well short of the top four.
Ten Hag is under immense pressure since the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team and, despite victory, there were clear signs of their problems in the Everton game. The Dutchman’s tactics and methods have been repeatedly questioned this season, with the good times under Sir Alex Ferguson adding an unfavourable comparison.
Before the Everton game, former United defender Rio Ferdinand visited the club’s training ground at Carrington to meet Ten Hag. He was keen to draw parallels between his era and now and said on TNT Sports: “The standards were a big thing when I was here. We used to have Paul Scholes setting the standards. He was the best every day.”
Asked which players set the standards in training, Ten Hag replied: “Raphael Varane, Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez. Licha, when he is out on the training pitch, he's always on the front foot. They set the tone so that others, they can hang on."
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Ferdinand was delighted with the response, adding: "It's so refreshing to hear him talk about the training ground and standards. Standards, standards, standards. That's one of the things he kept repeating about: standards."
Like most coaches, Ten Hag clearly puts a huge amount of value on the levels in training. That was ultimately the problem which saw Jadon Sancho sent on loan to Borussia Dortmund in January after months of being frozen out.
Jadon Sancho was forced to train by himself at Carrington before being loaned out (Getty Images)After dropping Sancho, Ten Hag made clear how important training is to his team selection, explaining: "On his performance on training we didn't select him. You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United. You can make choices in the front line, so in this game he wasn't selected."
Ten Hag treated Marcus Rashford differently to Sancho after he was dropped following his ill-advised boozy trip to Belfast in January. Just weeks before that incident, Ten Hag had praised Rashford’s levels in training.
“I see technical class every day with Marcus Rashford. He impressed me from the first training session,” he said. “That was all to Rashford's own credit because he was very focused on getting better. After every training session, he wants to work on his finishing, with the right foot, with the left foot, from different angles and from crosses.”
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