United legend impressed with ‘brave’ Ten Hag who has helped two ‘not great footballers’ thrive | OneFootball

Paul Scholes has been “encouraged” by Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag following his arrival from Ajax this summer.

Ten Hag left the Dutch club at the end of last season after four-and-a-half terrific years in Amsterdam.

Following a productive pre-season, United started the season with two woeful results.

A 2-1 home defeat at home to Brighton on matchday one was followed up by an embarrassing 4-0 defeat away to Brentford.

However, since then the Red Devils have won four league games on the bounce and have risen to fifth in the Premier League table.

This includes wins over Liverpool and Arsenal, who are top of the table with their loss at Old Trafford the only time the Gunners have dropped points this season.

In the defeat to Brentford in particular, Ten Hag’s side were caught out trying to play out from the back.

The Dutch manager realised his players could not play that way and has gone for a more direct approach since the loss at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Goalkeeper David de Gea is dodgy at best with the ball at his feet, so it was a wise decision for Ten Hag to play more to his strengths.

And former United midfielder Scholes is impressed with Ten Hag for changing his philosophy early doors.

“The crowd get nervous when the goalkeeper tries to play a ten-yard pass, that’s not a Manchester United philosophy, that’s Barcelona or Ajax,” he said on The Overlap.

“With Erik ten Hag, he’s stumbled across it. After the Brentford game, he realised he didn’t have the players to play that way, he knew he had to go more direct.

“Raphael Varane, great a player as he’s been, is not a great footballer.

“David De Gea is not a great footballer. So, play to your strengths, which for United is the attacking players, and you have to admire the new manager for playing that way.”

Ten Hag’s early work at Old Trafford has impressed Scholes, who is happy the former Ajax boss decided not to persist with his original game plan.

“Louis Van Gaal joined Manchester United and wanted to play possession-based football, but United are not that,” he added.

“It was always about substance over style, scoring goals and making chances rather than a pretty end product.

“I’ve been encouraged with what I’ve seen so far by Erik ten Hag. He’s changed a lot since the Brentford game. The simple thing was, don’t play out from the back.

“Get the ball forward to your best players. Get Christian Eriksen into centre midfield, a player who can play balls to the forward players.”

While he has tweaked his system, Ten Hag has dropped some big players in the process.

Club captain Harry Maguire has not started in the Premier League since the defeat at Brentford.

Neither has Luke Shaw, and the big decisions have paid off right away with summer signing Tyrell Malacia impressing in left-back.

Furthermore, the centre-half partnership of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez is thriving.

Scholes added: “He had to leave Harry Maguire out. It was a brave decision. He’s a brave manager.”