To give you an idea of how fastidious Erik ten Hag can be, the Manchester United manager has been known to request that the foam coverings on microphones are removed before press conferences or interviews. He finds them distracting and Ten Hag, as anyone who has worked with him or crossed his path will know, does not do distraction.
United’s players and staff were left in no doubt on the club’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia last summer who was in charge and how exacting the manager’s demands could be and it has been no different 12 months on in the United States as they prepare for his all important second season in charge.
Listening to stories about the level of control Ten Hag exerts about everything from the colour of socks that should be worn on a particular day to the bespoke nutritional plans of every individual player while in America, it is hard not to recall the contrast with their tour here under another Dutch manager in 2014.
The sight of an exasperated Louis van Gaal, sitting in the bowels of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, publicly condemning United’s schedule and the surfeit of commercial engagements could not be further removed from the power and authority Ten Hag wields.
For example, this tour had originally been scheduled to include three days of commercial activities but they ended up being cut to two after the manager had reviewed all the arrangements and concluded that an additional day was too much.
All things commercial have to be run through Ten Hag and approved by him and staff have become accustomed to being peppered with questions about why, where, who, when and what is happening. For fans who have worried commercial priorities have too often trumped on pitch matters in the past, it will be music to their ears. “He’ll just say no if he doesn’t think it’s needed,” said one source.
After a marathon 62-game season that also featured a winter World Cup for many of United’s international stars, Ten Hag was loath to embark on a long tour, which is one reason why it was limited to just 11 days.
While recognising that there is a brand to promote, Ten Hag believes nothing should distract from the football and even the co-owner of the club was given a reminder of such last week in New Jersey on the first leg of the tour. Avram Glazer and his wife Jill had pitched up at Pingry School in the leafy Basking Ridge district of New Jersey, where United had based themselves, to find a chat with the manager would have to wait.
Training was due to commence soon after and Ten Hag was not about to delay the start of it, not even for the man who owns the club. There was a quick handshake and a hello and then Ten Hag was off to cast a keen eye over the session.
Basking Ridge, in itself, was an interesting choice of location. United are usually accustomed to armies of fans camping outside their hotel but the Somerset Hills Hotel in quiet Warren, a good 45 minute drive from the MetLife Stadium where United played Arsenal last Saturday, offered plenty of privacy and, on any given day, you would have been hard pressed to find more than 50 autograph hunters lurking around.
In San Diego, where a United Under-21 team played Wrexham at the SnapDragon Stadium in the early hours on Wednesday, the squad stayed at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, a luxurious retreat in one of the city’s swanky seaside villages. The hotel is made up of a series of enchanting garden enclaves, one of which was converted into an open-air games room where players could enjoy basketball and table tennis.
One of the biggest changes on this tour, and something that has been warmly welcomed by a demanding squad, is the quality and variety of the food. There have been grumblings after four or five days on past tours about bland, repetitive menus. Not any more.
United brought in a new lead chef, Omar Meziane, in January and he has proven a big hit with the players. In a move encouraged by Ten Hag, every player has been given an individual nutrition strategy tailored to their specific needs. Meziane, who was previously the performance chef for the England cricket team, the Great Britain rowing team and Harlequins and Wasps rugby clubs, has insisted on the use of higher quality ingredients and fresh food. Live cooking stations have proven particularly popular and are used to encourage players to eat certain foods they need to properly fuel on certain days of the week.
It has been commonplace on this tour for local cuisines and delicacies to be incorporated into the menus to keep them varied and broaden horizons. Locally sourced fresh fish was the order of the day in San Diego on Tuesday lunchtime, for example.
United have brought two chefs and two nutritionists to the US. Meziane – who wrote a book Cooking for Fitness: Eat Smarter, Train Better with the former England rugby union star James Haskell whom he knew from Wasps – will always travel a day ahead of the team to ensure that the food is of the highest standard upon the squad’s arrival at the next location. Barcelona had to cancel their friendly against Juventus in Santa Clara last Saturday after their players were struck down by a stomach bug and these are the sort of issues Meziane and Ten Hag take every precaution to guard against.
Players and staff are informed of the dress and colour code by email a day in advance right down to which colour socks they should be wearing – black or white – with their training kit or leisurewear. Violations seldom escape Ten Hag’s notice and he will tease those who fall foul of the rules. For all his disciplinarian tendencies, the Dutchman has a good sense of humour and staff know they can laugh and joke with him. His personal touch was evident when he was the first person to greet new signing Andre Onana at the team hotel in New Jersey after the goalkeeper flew into the US after the rest of the squad following completion of his £44 million move from Inter Milan.
There has been no let up on Ten Hag’s ban on mobile phones at meal times and players and staff must have breakfast together. Lateness is not tolerated.
Training has been typically intense. Although there were multiple double sessions at Carrington before the squad flew to America, the only double session on tour to date was in New Jersey on Friday last week but Ten Hag is determined to evolve United’s style of play this season and views pre-season as an invaluable period to work on tactics, shape and systems. United’s 2-0 defeat by an impressive, Jude Bellingham-inspired Real Madrid in Houston in the early hours on Thursday demonstrated the gap still to bridge.
United’s sports scientists and analysts get huge data dumps on individual player workloads to help determine fitness levels and use muscle sensors to help take accurate readings on fatigue while talking regularly to players to get a feel on a more human level about how they are coping.
A big campaign awaits and Ten Hag is determined to ensure United hit the ground running, starting against Wolves on Aug 14, and that there is no repeat of last season’s atrocious start when they lost their opening two matches and were immediately put on the back foot.
