Erik ten Hag has given a detailed account of his time at Manchester United, saying the club were not equipped to win the Premier League during his tenure and that injuries, an exhausting pre-season tour and an inconsistent squad undermined his work.
The 56-year-old Dutchman also discussed his decisions over players including Wout Weghorst, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Alejandro Garnacho, the influence of former United players who now work as pundits, and his belief that the club needed to make greater use of data.
Ten Hag was speaking at Ros van Twente, the hotel he co-owns with his brothers Michel and Rico, and John Berghaan and Anita Stappenbeld. He had earlier collected the interviewer from Enschede station after finishing work as technical director of FC Twente at De Grolsch Veste.
Driving through the Dutch countryside, Ten Hag recalled the fireworks depot explosion in Enschede in 2000, which killed 23 people, including four firefighters, injured 950 and destroyed 400 homes. FC Twente’s training ground was nearby and members of players’ families and friends were hurt, but the club ordered the team to play at Feyenoord the next day.
Ten Hag criticised the decision in a post-match interview.
“The leadership of the club were mad at me, but they had made the decision to play,” he said. “Everyone is agreeing now: you can’t play football when your city is burning.”
United’s inconsistency and the importance of Fernandes
Ten Hag believes United’s 7-0 defeat by Liverpool in March 2023 exposed the team’s lack of consistency. It came soon after United had won the Carabao Cup and followed a 2-2 draw at Barcelona and a 2-1 home victory over the Spanish club in the last-32 stage of the Europa League.
Weghorst, standing 6ft 6in (198cm), played as a number 10 at Camp Nou while Marcus Rashford operated as a centre-forward. He later started up front in the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United at Wembley and helped create Rashford’s goal in a 2-0 win.
“On our good day we could match the best teams in the league, in the world, I would even say,” said Ten Hag. “On the worst day, we sat below the bottom.”
He regarded the Europa League quarter-final against Sevilla as the point when his reign began to change. United led 2-0 in the first leg but were eliminated 5-2 on aggregate after Lisandro Martinez broke his foot and Bruno Fernandes was substituted.
“Licha was so important for us to play from the back, but also the winning mentality, winning duels. And Bruno,” he said.
United recorded 27 home wins that season, equalling a club record, but Ten Hag believes they would have set a new mark had they beaten Sevilla at Old Trafford.
He appointed Fernandes captain and gave him freedom within the team’s tactical plan.
“He has great game understanding, he’s a top professional, and he always gives his best,” Ten Hag said. “Sometimes he’s getting emotional, but he’s a winner.”
Ten Hag said he remained self-critical but believed his players always tried to follow the game plan.
Mainoo ‘special’ and the cost of the United tour
The manager blamed United’s 2023-24 preparations for contributing to a poor physical start. The team travelled 13,650 miles across the Atlantic, visiting New Jersey, San Diego, Houston and Las Vegas.
“We got exhausted from all the kilometres,” he said. “We didn’t train proper tactical and physical work for 10 days because they were totally killed… We were never fit.”
Kobbie Mainoo suffered an ankle injury against Real Madrid in Texas before making his first Premier League start at Everton, where he was named player of the match in a 3-0 victory.
Ten Hag first noticed Mainoo while watching him play for United’s second team in July 2022.
“I thought, ‘OK, he’s an amazing talent’. But he was too easy,” he said. “We needed him to get in a higher intensity.”
Mainoo has since described training under Ten Hag and assistant manager Mitchell van der Gaag as tough but among the best sessions of his career.
“Kobbie is, for me, special,” said Ten Hag. “But in the end, he’s doing it by himself.”
Persistent injuries meant Ten Hag used 13 different centre-back combinations and changed his back four 29 times.
“It’s almost impossible to get automatism in,” he said. “But I know at the top, it’s about the result.”
Ten Hag added that United’s expectations were enormous, but the squad was not strong or consistent enough to win the league.
“We could have won the title if we had continued on building,” he said. “But in that time we were not consistent enough; the squad was not good enough to win it.”
Sancho, Antony and former players’ criticism
Ten Hag left United in October 2024. He rejected the idea that starting Noussair Mazraoui as a number 10 against Fenerbahce was a desperate final gamble, saying some of his decisions were intended to surprise opponents.
He also explained why Sofyan Amrabat started ahead of Casemiro in the FA Cup final against Manchester City. Ten Hag wanted greater midfield coverage and later felt United could have retained Scott McTominay instead of signing Manuel Ugarte and keeping Amrabat.
“I wanted to keep Sofyan Amrabat, they didn’t,” he said. “I think he did a great job at United.”
Ten Hag said former United players including Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt were entitled to protect their legacies, although they did not always know what was happening inside the club.
“They achieved massive successes. But also, they can help the club more, help the players more,” he said. “I think always the thing you most love, you most criticise.”
He said such criticism had not personally affected him, although it could unsettle players.
Ten Hag also defended his decision to sign Antony from Ajax for €100m (£84m, $112m). He said the move became necessary after Sancho told him he did not want to play on the right wing.
“There came up a problem because Sancho didn’t want to play on the right side; he said that,” Ten Hag said. “He said he felt more comfortable on the left. So there we had an issue, and we were late.”
Antony was signed on deadline day, with Ajax able to negotiate a fee above market value because of United’s circumstances. Ten Hag said he selected players according to performance and profile, rather than personal preference or whether he had previously coached or signed them.
Brief Leverkusen spell and Garnacho
Ten Hag described his three-game spell in charge of Bayer Leverkusen as “a very strange story”. He inherited a squad unsettled by the departure of Xabi Alonso, who had won the Bundesliga before moving to Real Madrid.
“Three games and then we parted ways,” he said. “The good players signed in the last couple of days. I never worked with them.”
Ten Hag said he had encouraged Garnacho to join him at Leverkusen but understood why the player chose to remain in England. Garnacho later moved from Manchester United to Chelsea and is now on loan at Aston Villa.
“He’s a character, you have to manage him, but I had a strong connection with him,” Ten Hag said. “He needs a coach, a particular coach, who will give him trust, who will give him love.”
Ten Hag praised Garnacho’s stamina, speed, dribbling and finishing, while saying he needed to improve his defensive focus and could sometimes be selfish.
Data and his next role
As FC Twente’s technical director, Ten Hag uses statistical analysis to assess potential signings. His seven criteria are technical ability, game intelligence and cognition, athleticism, lifestyle, determination, resilience and robustness, plus an offensive approach.
He said United lacked the scoring power to finish in the top four when he arrived. At Twente, he believes 70 goals are needed to finish fourth, while a team aiming to win the Premier League requires 85 or 90.
“Data changed the whole world, and now it’s coming, AI,” he said. “Every organisation has to take this on board.”
Ten Hag said he offered his expertise to INEOS after it became a minority owner of United in December 2023, but felt the group believed it already understood the club’s philosophy and operating methods through its work in petrochemicals, Formula 1 and cycling.
“Top football demands something totally different,” he said.
At FC Twente, Ten Hag watched a Conference League match against Swiss champions FC Thun, a 1-0 win in which 18-year-old defender Ruud Nijstad helped secure a clean sheet. He later appeared on television with Ronald de Boer and Youri Mulder, the technical director of Schalke 04.
Ten Hag believes clubs should not rely solely on the head coach as their public voice. The manager should discuss selections and tactics, the technical director should address culture, and the chief executive should speak about financial matters.
He is also working as a UEFA technical analyst and was preparing to cover Paris Saint-Germain against Barcelona from home while FC Twente travelled to Gibraltar to face Lincoln Red Imps.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
© 2026 The Athletic Media Company
