Manchester United fans are excited to see what changes Erik ten Hag will bring to the club after his arrival this summer.
It feels like the first time in the post-Alex Ferguson era that they have appointed an exciting manager on the up, one whose best days are not likely to be behind him.
The Dutchman's first task will be to overhaul the squad, with a number of potential targets supposedly already identified. Once some new players arrive, he will then be tasked with overhauling the playing style at the club and changing the mentality in the dressing room.
It will be very different to the job he has done at Ajax, where he arrived at a club that were already in a good position to compete both domestically and abroad. Jaap Stam believes the gig at Old Trafford will provide quite the contrast.
Speaking to the PA news agency, the former United defender said that while Erik ten Hag is an excellent manager, he will face quite the challenge once he arrives in the Premier League.
You feel that – and that’s me being in Holland the majority of the time – everybody around the world is talking about United, how they’re playing and what they’re doing and that they want to have success.
Erik has been doing well in Holland and everybody knows that as well. That’s why he got the job at United of course.
We also need to understand that in the league in Holland the quality of the majority of teams is a lot less than how Ajax is but still you need to produce, so that’s still a very good thing that he’s done.
Now he’s been given the chance to try to do the same at United and hopefully he can do.
But he understands, and he knows as well, that the Premier League is totally different – the people, the press, the expectations, the pressure – to how it was in Holland.
For him that’s going to be a learning curve but it’s very important that the club and the owners are backing him up in terms of personnel.
United have got good players. Yeah, some of them might need to go but they need to bring in several other players as well, so they can get unity within that squad, play in a certain way.
The philosophy in how he wants to play is of course very important. That’s why they chose Erik. Hopefully he can show that.
Ten Hag thrived at Ajax, a club with excellent structures in place to ensure continued success. No such infrastructure exists at Manchester United, meaning it will be almost entirely down to the manager to change their fortunes on the pitch.
That is quite the task for any one man, regardless of how talented he is.
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