A fascinating breakdown of Manchester United's tactics during their pre-season clash against Liverpool should give fans an idea of what kind of football Erik ten Tag wants to play at Old Trafford in the coming months.
On the surface, it was a meaningless friendly but Tuesday's outing at the Rajamangala Stadium in Thailand taught us a great deal about the ideology of former Ajax boss Ten Hag.
Goals from Jadon Sancho, Fred, Anthony Martial and Facundo Pellistri helped them win in style, while the likes of 19-year-old Zidane Iqbal, the club's highly-rated midfielder, impressed against the Fabinho and Thiago.
After a dismal campaign last season, it looks the United squad have been invigorated by the arrival of their new manager.
And now the dust has settled following the pre-season win against Liverpool, the guys over Tifo IRL have produced an in-depth analysis of what we learned from Erik ten Hag's first game in charge of Manchester United.
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They deep-dive into United's aggression, both in and out of possession, as well as the clear commitment to throw lots of players forward – two key areas where they have struggled of late. You can see the full clip below.
After the full-time whistle on Tuesday, Ten Hag did not pull any punches in his post-match interview. Despite the positive scoreline in their first pre-season game, the Dutchman admitted to seeing "a lot of mistakes" throughout.
He also pointed out that Premier League runners up Liverpool were not at their strongest and warned his players not to overestimate the result.
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"Of course we are satisfied today because I think that was a team with a great spirit and we know we are just starting and things went wrong, clearly," he said.
"We did the press, we made some mistakes in pressing, we conceded some chances, but also we created a lot.
"I think our team played brave, played proactive. We have to work really hard to cut out the mistakes, but of course we are happy with the first game."
Ten Hag said he was relatively happy with the performance of his players, but admitted it will take "a lot of time" to get his principles across.
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"I have seen a lot of mistakes," he said. "You would not say [when you look] at the result but, lets be honest, Liverpool plays in three teams. They were not at their strongest so we have to not overestimate this result.
"We have to [be careful] but still, I have seen some great things. We have potential."
Topics: Manchester United, Premier League, Liverpool, Erik Ten Hag
Jack Kenmare