When the Manchester United squad reported to Carrington on Sunday, August 14, 2022, on another baking hot summer’s day, they were expecting the usual post-match recovery day. Those players who had featured the previous day would generally be working inside, while the squad members who didn’t feature would do a demanding session aimed at getting the intensity of a match into their legs. But on this day, it would be different.. Erik ten Hag’s tenure in charge of the club is two games old but it already feels like it is on a precipice. Both games have been lost and the afternoon before United were 4-0 down at Brentford after 35 minutes. It is the low point in a year stacked full of dismal days to follow this football club and “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” rains down from the away end.. Ten Hag looked stunned at what he saw unfolding in front of him, in temperatures hitting the mid-30s in west London, and when he gets to Carrington the following day he had a new session ready for his players. The Dutchman was stunned to see that his side had been outrun by Brentford to the tune of 13.8 km, so every player was made to run just that distance around Carrington. It was cooler than the day before, but it was still uncomfortably hot.. ALSO READ: Ten Hag explains why he’s not surprised by Mainoo impact. ALSO READ: United confirm huge injury boost ahead of Brentford game. Ten Hag made the squad rewatch that first-half performance and then wanted to know why they hadn’t run at 100%. This wasn’t just a punishment for a poor performance, however. Running hard and an intense work rate are non-negotiables for Ten Hag and he is a disciplinarian, but he is also aware that this is a collaborative effort, so he slips on his running trainers and joins the players.. Two weeks later, Ten Hag drops Cristiano Ronaldo for a home game against Liverpool and his team win 2-1. His era in charge of United has lift-off and the events of that Sunday in the Carrington sunshine have gone down as defining.. For all that he now finds himself under pressure ahead of a first return to the Gtech Community Stadium since that grim day, the players are clearly still fighting for him. You only needed to watch the Liverpool game two weeks ago to see evidence of that.. Plenty of the respect the squad still have for the 53-year-old dates back to that day. Look at what captain Bruno Fernandes said in January 2023 when he remembered that gruelling session.. “When a manager does the punishment it makes us feel he knows he was part of that bad result,” said Fernandes. “He wanted to make us understand we’re together, in the good moments and in the bad moments. That shows he’s a manager who takes responsibility and not only puts it on the players.”. That day has since been described within Carrington as a “line in the sand”, although at the time it didn’t get too much attention within the club. While some people were surprised to hear about the session, the players accepted the reasoning for it and didn’t complain.. “It went down well, it had a tangible impact on the mood,” said one United staffer, a point proven by the form which followed that dispiriting day, with the club ending the season with a first trophy in six years and a third-place finish in the Premier League.. While Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would occasionally show off his finishing skills during shooting drills when United manager, it had been a long time since the players had a boss who was so involved in sessions as Ten Hag.. The run also came at a time when Ten Hag had been tasked to curb player power within the dressing room. Senior United officials accepted it was a problem during the reigns of Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick and saw the uncompromising, direct Ajax manager as the person to put a stop to it.. The running drill after Brentford was seen as a major part of that, but with the clever addition of Ten Hag taking part as well. It was a statement that he was in charge, but everyone was in it together. He felt it was a ‘big message’ to get across.. He was asked about the run at one point last season and explained his thinking behind it.. “We are together. We win together and we lose together. So I’m in the boat as well, as my coaches are,” he said.. “We are together with the dressing room, with the players, we are in there. I think we have quality in the dressing room with the players, with the coaching staff and we have to get results because we get paid for that. We have to take that responsibility. Every day, every match, we have to prove that; prove that to the club and to our fans. That’s our responsibility.”. It was also a day when the players realised that there might be more to Ten Hag than they had realised – certainly more than previous managers. He had been stand-offish at times on his first pre-season tour in Thailand and Australia, keeping his distance and proving a puzzle difficult to work out.. They left Carrington on the evening of Sunday, August 14, 2022, with a better understanding of the man now in charge of their club.
