Dwight Yorke claims to have spotted a big change in Erik ten Hag ahead of Manchester United’s FA Cup final victory.
Manchester United enjoyed a brilliant end to a largely miserable season with a surprise 2-1 win at Wembley on Saturday.
Erik ten Hag landed his second trophy as United boss at the expense of their noisy neighbours Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s side headed into the game as huge favourites after securing their fourth consecutive Premier League title while United finished eighth. But to Ten Hag’s credit, he devised a brilliant game plan and his players executed it perfectly on the day.
Despite his success at Wembley, the Dutchman’s future at Old Trafford remains up in the air, with the Red Devils currently weighing up their options.
Ten Hag has been particularly bullish in recent weeks as he fights for his future at the club and Dwight Yorke has picked up on his difference in approach with the media.
READ MORE: INEOS want manager Roy Keane called ‘brilliant’ to replace Erik ten Hag, but there’s a problem
Yorke says Ten Hag was ‘like a different person’ ahead of FA Cup final
Speaking on talkSPORT, Yorke was quizzed on his recent admission that he’d love to have the opportunity to manage United.
The United legend explained the changes he’d make if he landed the job while also discussing a change he’s noticed in Ten Hag of late.
“For me personally, you’ve got to get rid of some of the deadwood that has been at the club for such a long time,” Yorke said. “You’ve got to give the young players a chance, we’ve seen that now with the young players when they’ve played. They bring energy, they want to be successful and I’m not saying go away from the senior players because you do need seniority around the club. But the youth players are the way forward.
“Your backroom staff is very important, people who are on the same wavelength, what you bring in to make sure they identify what Man United is, as simple as that.
“People talk about building the culture but you want a place that you go into, you want to come to a place, a working environment that you create that is happiness. That is a place that you look forward to coming in every morning. I’m not so sure if that is the case around United these last couple of years, where players in there and players are challenging the managers a little bit more than usual. Yes, players do have opinions, but it has always been, you know, behind closed doors. These things have become far more public now and I think that is always, you look at Ten Hag when he’s doing his press conference, he’s always on the back foot.
“He’s always having to defend his decisions. And I think that is something that I learnt in talking to Sir Alex Ferguson that when you press conference, you’ve got to win your press conference and he’s been buoyant, bullish because maybe he’s fighting for his career in terms of staying in the job.
“You look at that press conference, what he did before the actual FA Cup final, that seemed like a different person and that manifests into the team. So, these are little things that I noticed that really in the past, it’s not quite the United way and I think those are things that I personally, if given the chance, would start getting in there, putting those things in place very, very quickly.”
READ MORE: Matty Cash shares whether he believes Manchester United or Arsenal had a better season
What Ten Hag said before Man United’s FA Cup final
Despite not many believing United had a real chance on Saturday, Ten Hag expressed plenty of belief heading into the game.
He told journalists in the pre-match press conference that he expects his side to play their best football at Wembley.
“In a season that’s not [gone] our way, we are there. We have an opportunity and it will never be easy but we have to go for it and we will go for it,” Ten Hag said.
“We have to believe it as we did last season and as we know, often against good opponents, we play our best football and I expect us to do this on Saturday.”
It’s fair to say that United certainly delivered on that front and despite only having 26 per cent of the ball, they created two big chances in the game to City’s one.
It was a brilliantly devised game plan from Ten Hag and he will be hoping it proves to be enough to keep him in the job next season.