Erik ten Hag: Pragmatist – Man United News And Transfer News

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In the past, we have referred to Erik ten Hag as being quite pragmatic for a Dutch manager, but after today’s preseason fixture against Athletic Bilbao we should perhaps push that a little further.

Ten Hag might just be the most pragmatic Dutch coach to walk the Earth.

It was a preseason friendly, the last before United’s Premier League curtain-raiser against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The team was made up of backups, soon-to-be-leavers, and academy prospects. The result supposedly meaningless, the method supposedly everything.

But come the final ten minutes, that simply did not matter.

Ten Hag ushered forward not one, but two towering centre backs. He had Christian Eriksen and Victor Lindelof pump balls into the box at every opportunity. He wanted hopeful balls for knock-downs.

It was very un-Dutch, very un-friendly, and very un-cultured all at once. And we loved it.

Ten Hag does not subscribe to the Cruyffian ideals in the way his compatriots do, nor is he a Pep disciple as so many would have had you believe upon him signing for Man United.

He is very much his own man and he has just one tenant that makes up his philosophy: winning.

That is why it did not matter in the slightest that this was just a friendly. The pretty passes and the patterns of play went right out the window late on because a goal was needed by any means necessary.

We will see our centre backs in the penalty area again this season – you can be sure of that.

Because if Erik ten Hag is willing to throw out the rulebook during a meaningless preseason encounter, you can bet your life he will do it when it counts.