One of the traits Erik ten Hag demands of his players is a desire to win every single match they play.
“We don’t play friendly games,” Erik ten Hag said on pre-season tour last summer.
It is a competitive attitude the manager preaches, and one former Erik ten Hag player lives by the same mantra.
Former United striker Wout Weghorst has been causing a little upset with his approach during a friendly for the Dutch national team.
Wout Weghorst criticised
In between their second and third group stage games at Euro 2024, the Netherlands national team played in a friendly match in Germany.
They played against German amateur club TSV Havelse, with the back-ups in the Dutch team getting a runout – except United target Joshua Zirkzee, who was ill.
The Dutch side won the match – while Weghorst was criticised for his full-on approach.
Dutch reporter Valentijn Driessen told De Telegraaf: “Weghorst had knocked another one [player] over.
“They didn’t really like that, they thought it was very aggressive. They were not allowed to play so aggressively, but Weghorst did.”
The amateur team would have been under strict instructions not to cause any potential injuries to their professional opponents.
Weghorst’s full-on approach clearly didn’t go down too well against a side who had been told to ease off.
Weghorst praised in the Netherlands
Wout Weghorst scored only two goals during his Manchester United loan spell. This meant that for all his high effort, and fitting the way Erik ten Hag wanted to play, there wasn’t a substantial case to sign him on a permanent basis.
The Dutchman has scored once so far at Euro 2024, a winner in the Netherlands’ opener against Poland.
Journalist Martijn Krabbendam told Voetbal International: “Weghorst has become a phenomenon. His entire career he has mocked everything that makes sense.
“Wout Weghorst is the Dirk Kuijt of his time, the example that perseverance can take you very far.
He did, however, take a bit of a dig at the way the striker still lacked quality at the absolute top level.
He said: “Respect for all his hard work is appropriate, but anyone who analyzes him as a striker sees someone who is not even such a recent past would never have been selected. In any case, he is an indication of the state of attacking talent in the Netherlands.”
