Ruud Gullit tells Manchester United to stop living in the past | OneFootball

Ruud Gullit claims Manchester United are stuck in the past.

The former Chelsea manager and Netherlands international believes Erik ten Hag must adapt his coaching to the Premier League, but he fears the Dutchman is caught working at a club that is stuck in the 90s.

Gullit, speaking to Laureus, doesn’t think United have been able to move on from the days of Sir Alex Ferguson.

“I think that there’s a lot of problems at Manchester United,” Gullit said, as per the Telegraph.

“I think they missed the opportunity to change football. I think they live too much in the past. They talk about the 90s team too much. That’s the past. You see teams, they play a football that they now want to play, but they are too late.

“Pep Guardiola did it, [Jurgen] Klopp did it, [Thomas] Tuchel did it and they were hanging in the past, [Louis] Van Gaal and [Jose] Mourinho as well. Great coaches, but there’s a new era, there’s a new way of playing and that’s the reason why they stood behind.

“Nowadays, players want to go to different teams. They want to go to Liverpool, they want to go to Manchester City, they want to go to Chelsea. They are not the main team any more in England as they were with Ferguson. That’s the past. So, you need to change your mentality a little bit and it will take some time.

“Plus, they have five ex-players who every day talk about Manchester United. It’s difficult. Difficult. And the only way you can overcome that is to win and if you don’t, then every day, you’re gonna see the newspapers, the first five, six articles all about United, every day.”

There is a lot of home truths in there – and some of them we don’t like coming from outsiders, like Gullit, but he makes some valid points.

Moving on from the greatest manager of all-time isn’t easy and I don’t know why people claim we’re still sticking to the Ferguson days when the results couldn’t be any worse.

The Dave Sexton days?

Ten Hag started his United career with a 2-1 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion and he is still trying to sign Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.

“I think Ten Hag is a good coach, but if you come with a Dutch mentality only to come to England, it’s difficult,” added Gullit. “You have to adapt yourself. You have to understand that you don’t win games only with football, you need power as well.

“You need power, you need technique, you need stamina, you need the right mentality. If you see also, in midfield, you know, you need players who can play.”