Erik ten Hag is ‘convinced’ he is the man who will restore Manchester United to their former glory, backing himself in a task that has victims out four previous permanent managers.
David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have all tried and failed to pick up where Sir Alex Ferguson left off when he retired in 2013.
United have tried a string of expensive signings, vastly differing styles of play and by the end of 2021/22 were as far as away from the glory days as they have ever been.
Ten Hag, who made his name internationally when he took Ajax to within a kick of the 2019 Champions League final and was previously a pupil of Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, enjoyed a promising start to pre-season but got a rude awakening in the Premier League against Brighton.
The Dutchman even admitted he was surprised by Brighton’s tactics last weekend, which suggest that he as much as the players still have some learning to do.
“I’m convinced I’ll get it done – I did it everywhere,” Ten Hag told Sky Sports.
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“I cannot ask the fans to be patient – I hope they will be – because they want to see a winning team and that is why I am here, but I have to produce it. But the process takes time, it is what it is.”
United heads appeared to drop when Brighton went ahead last weekend and Ten Hag has called on his players to be mentally stronger because mistakes are normal this early in the season.
“We were confident in preseason, good pressing and decisions, but that was clearly not the case in the first half against Brighton, when we obviously made mistakes and they punished us,” he said.
“You have to be mentally strong at the start of the season as you will make mistakes.”
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