Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes says Erik ten Hag’s emphasis on discipline and sharing blame with his players has allowed the manager to make a difference within the team.
Fernandes told The Athletic’s Adam Crafton that after United’s opening double defeats against Brighton and Brentford, the manager resorted to familiar tactics and took a hard-line stance to get his men to perform.
The Portuguese midfielder told The Athletic: “He went straight to his rules, to his demands, to what he wants from us. He used to say: ‘I want to play with us always pressing the ball, to be hungry to do good things, to fight for the team, to be difficult to beat.’
“I could feel in the training sessions after Brentford that we were going to do something different.”
The 28-year-old also confirmed that the Dutch coach punished his players by making them run 13.8km after the Brentford thrashing, an exercise in which Ten Hag himself took part.
According to Fernandes, this only served to earn the coach more respect and admiration within the locker room.
United’s number 8 explained that Ten Hag’s gesture showed the team that he, too, took a share of the blame rather than solely attributing it to the players on the pitch.
The Portuguese international lifted the lid on another trick used by the former Ajax boss, which has helped the Red Devils turn a brilliant turn.
“Individually, he calls the players many times to show us clips, and he’s like, ‘Here, I’d rather you do other kinds of things.’
“That’s good because the players need time to get the best out of the idea that he wants to do.”
Fernandes believes this would help streamline players further, making their movements increasingly automatic.
United face a litmus test at Manchester City when Premier League football returns in a few days. It will certainly be the biggest challenge Ten Hag has faced in his time in England and should provide both him and the fans with a true reflection of the state of the team relative to the champions.
