Ten Hag keen to "change culture" over rewarding new contracts

Karan Tejwani

4 Oct 2022 01:45 CDT
3 min read

Erik ten Hag on the Manchester United touchline. — © ProShots

Manchester United suffered a tough 6-3 defeat at the hands of local rivals Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, exposing some problems within the team and providing a harsh reality check to the club.

Article continues under the video

Hat-tricks from Erling Haaland and Phil Foden condemned the Red Devils to a third league defeat of the season and ended a four-game winning run for them.

Erik ten Hag’s side went into the game with some positivity having beaten Arsenal and Liverpool in previous fixtures, but this was a test too far and showed the team where they are compared to other rivals.

The manager now wants to use the defeat as part of a culture change at the club and wishes to reshape the squad in the best way he can in the coming months and years.

Ten Hag keen to change culture

In previous seasons, Manchester United used to hand out contracts and extensions on deals just for players to retain some transfer value and avoid losing them on a free.

Ten Hag now wants that to stop as he wants big changes at the club, and the defeat at Manchester City was an indication as to why something like that is needed.

Over the years, players such as Juan Mata, Phil Jones, Jesse Lingard and others were handed deals despite having a minimal role in the squad, and Ten Hag no longer wants that to happen.

🗞 Erik ten Hag is due to hold a meeting at Carrington training base on Monday and wants the #mufc squad and his coaching staff to feel free to criticise each other during the analysis of their 6-3 defeat to Manchester City. [@TelegraphDucker]
— UtdDistrict 🔰 (@UtdDistrict) October 3, 2022

He feels players need to earn their way in their first-team and that only good performances will result in long-term stays at the club in the next few years.

According to The Telegraph, a club source said: He’s [Ten Hag] still in that phase of ‘Let’s see how people are, let’s see what they are up to’.

“How they adjust, how they handle pressure, how they handle not being picked, how they deal with different challenges," they continued.

Ten Hag doesn’t want players falling into a comfort zone and wants them to know that any new contracts with the club have to be won.