Erik ten Hag “hasn’t improved a single player” in his time at Manchester United according to Tim Sherwood, who claims the Red Devils have “gone backwards”.
Ten Hag steadied the ship last season, guiding United into the Champions League and winning the League Cup in his debut campaign at Old Trafford.
But things have taken a turn this term with United picking up just six points from their opening five games and losing their Champions League opener to Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
And former Tottenham manager Sherwood reckons the Dutch boss is failing when it comes to his man management of the team, claiming he has failed to improve players in his time at the club.
Sherwood told William Hill: “Erik ten Hag hasn’t improved a single Manchester United player in his time there. I can’t think of any. There are different facets to management. You can be a training ground manager and have your own style of play and all that, but at times it simply comes down to man management.
“He is losing Jadon Sancho after coming out publicly and criticising him, perhaps he might have been better off putting an arm round him and trying to get the best out of him rather than discarding him to the reserves and probably never to be seen again in a Manchester United shirt. That might have been the best option considering Alejandro Garnacho is not playing his best football at the moment. It’s cutting your nose off to spite your face.
“At Ajax you can just bring a replacement in from the academy and still win matches in what is, with respect, a non-competitive league in the Eredivisie. When you’re at United and you’re struggling you cannot do that. You need as big a group of top players as you can get. Yes, they’ve had injuries but they’ve got World Cup winners in Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane at the back and players with the experience of Casemiro at the heart of the team – they’re underachieving.
“Erik ten Hag inherited a mess and he did okay last year, but they’ve gone backwards. We expect Manchester United to be great and I love the big teams to all be challenging, but at the moment they’re miles off it. They are further away now than they were last year. Things have to change and the situation at Manchester United have to get better.
“I don’t think they should be buying development players. As a club Manchester United normally handpick the best of the best, and I’m not sure whether that’s an issue with the ownership. Whenever they lose a football match the ownership just gets slated.”
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