Man United: How Erik ten Hag’s Ajax overhauled rivals PSV and Feyenoord

Erik ten Hag has wasted little time in expressing his confidence that Manchester United, for all their current troubles, will soon be able to compete with Manchester City and Liverpool once again.

Addressing the English press for the first time last Monday, the incoming United coach declared that ‘you will always see an era come to an end’ in reference to the dynasties of success built by Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.

The season just finishing has only highlighted how City and Liverpool currently occupy a different stratosphere to their rivals down the road at Old Trafford, who limped into sixth place and Europa League qualification.

Erik ten Hag was officially unveiled as the new manager of Manchester United last Monday

The Dutch coach, 52, has vowed to restore the good times to Old Trafford as he gets to work

Champions City ended up a whopping 35 points ahead of United in the final Premier League standings, while second-placed Liverpool were 34 clear.

The colossal gulf between the clubs that has opened up in recent years was also evident in the respective goal differences: Man City +73, Liverpool +68, United 0.

It was also apparent in this season’s cup performances. United failed to reach the latter stages in the FA Cup, Carabao Cup or Champions League.

Liverpool won the two domestic trophies and reached the Champions League final, were they lost to Real Madrid. City reached the FA Cup semi-final and were only just beaten by Real in the Champions League semi-finals.

United have been truly woeful all season and are in urgent need of a shake up in standards

United could finish only sixth in the final Premier League table, 35 points behind the leaders

And all that is before we mention the actual meetings between United and their two rivals this season. United’s record reads: Played 4, won 0, drawn 0, lost 4, goals scored 1, goals conceded 15.

Yet here was Ten Hag drawing optimism from the way he broke the stranglehold of PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord on Dutch football after he was appointed by Ajax early in 2018.

When he arrived, the Amsterdam club had not won the Eredivisie since 2014 and not lifted the Dutch Cup since 2010 which, for them, most definitely constituted a trophy drought.

But Ten Hag changed all that. He well and truly knocked PSV and Feyenoord off their perch, with Ajax winning three league titles and two cups during his tenure. 

It would likely have been a fourth title had the 2019-20 campaign not been curtailed by the Covid pandemic.

Manchester City are the team to beat in the Premier League, having just won another title 

Liverpool, who could end up with three cups this season, are also miles ahead of United

Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp (left) and City’s Pep Guardiola (right) set the benchmark for Ten Hag

‘In Ajax, the project was to be back on top in Holland. When I started, PSV were on top and we changed it,’ Ten Hag said last week.

‘In the last four years, we were the No 1 continually. It was important also to finish in my last season as No 1.

‘There were PSV and Feyenoord who were huge competitors, but finally we won the battle and I’m very happy about that.’

But how exactly did Ten Hag restore Ajax to supremacy in Holland and can any lessons be learned that will help him achieve a similar revival of Manchester United?

2017-18 SEASON

Ten Hag was appointed Ajax manager midway through the 2017-18 campaign following the sacking of Marcel Keizer just a few days before Christmas.

Ajax were second at the time of Keizer’s sacking, which hardly suggests a crisis, but the players were definitely under-performing and had just been eliminated from the Dutch Cup by FC Twente.

Worse than that, they’d crashed out of the Champions League to Nice in the third qualifying round and then shockingly lost to Norwegians Rosenborg in the play-off round of the Europa League.

Considering that the previous season, an Ajax side led by Peter Bosz had reached the Europa League final, losing 2-0 to Manchester United, this was hugely disappointing.

An Ajax side led by Peter Bosz reached the 2017 Europa League final, losing to Man United

Ten Hag came in at Ajax to replace Marcel Keizer, who lasted only half a season

In fact, the whole club was under something of an emotional cloud following the collapse of talented player Abdelhak Nouri during a pre-season friendly against Werder Bremen.

Nouri suffered cardiac arrhythmia, which led to severe and permanent brain damage as a result, ending his football career and deeply affecting his team-mates.

Ten Hag was hired from Utrecht, having twice led them into Europe, but the step up to Holland’s biggest club was always going to be an adjustment.

It didn’t help that Ten Hag had no prior connection to Ajax, and so was perceived not to have or understand their DNA by large sections of the fanbase and press commentariat.

Ten Hag was also, by pure accident of birth, regarded as an outsider in the Dutch capital. 

They branded him a ‘Tukker’, a colloquialism for an unsophisticated, strongly-accented person from the rural east of the country, and he was mocked for how he spoke to the media.

There was also resistance from the Ajax players and even officials to the changes Ten Hag brought in. Training sessions were longer and more intense and he delivered long analytical team talks in an effort to instil his philosophy.

He got through this rocky initial period through sheer stubbornness and persistence. Marc Overmars, then Ajax’s director of football, was willing to give the new coach time to see where his ideas led to.

Ten Hag (left) pictured with his assistant Mitchell van der Gaag at a Eredivisie game in 2018

But ultimately Ten Hag wasn’t at Holland’s biggest club to make friends and didn’t especially care if he annoyed certain players by demanding more from them on the training ground.

In fairness, Ten Hag adopted the foundations of a very good side. The line-up for his first game in charge against Feyenoord, a 2-0 win, read: Onana; Veltman, De Ligt, De Jong, Tagliafico; Van de Beek, Schone, Ziyech; Neres, Huntelaar, Kluivert.

There were a few shaky results in the second half of that season to allow the Amsterdam press to sharpen their pens, not least a 3-0 loss to the champions-elect PSV, but Ten Hag soon achieved a better consistency of results.

In the end, they finished second in the Eredivisie, some four points behind PSV but the groundwork had been done.

As he takes over at United, that stubbornness could well prove to be Ten Hag’s greatest strength. Again he is an outsider, both to English football, English culture and the language. He will need to zone out from an awful lot of external noise.

Ten Hag with star man Frenkie de Jong during a match in his first season at the club

He inherits a group of players who essentially refused to adopt Ralf Rangnick’s ‘gegenpressing’ tactics, dismissing the German interim manager as merely a stop-gap and demeaning the coaches he brought in to train them.

There’s bound to be resistance when Ten Hag first tries to stamp his authority with long days at Carrington and he’s already given a taste of what they can expect during the pre-season tour to the Far East and Australia.

He said last Tuesday: ‘We have to present our way of playing. With our way I mean the Man United way. We will give rules and principles, so we’re bringing in strictures.’

Ten Hag isn’t a total disciplinarian but he doesn’t compromise when it comes to the way he wants to do things. United’s players had better be ready to listen.

2018-19 SEASON

At the beginning of Ten Hag’s first full season at Ajax, he decided to recruit some experience to offer a counterweight in the team to young homegrown tyros like Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong and Donny van de Beek.

He signed Dusan Tadic from Southampton and Daley Blind from United. He knew both were solid professionals and would set an example to the youngsters with their work ethic.

Hakim Ziyech was apparently one of those who was work-shy but seeing the extra hours Tadic and Blind put in after training had a knock-on effect.

Dusan Tadic proved to be an inspired Ten Hag signing, both for his goals and professionalism

Ten Hag has always been a coach who leads by example when it comes to hard graft. 

When in his first job at Go Ahead Eagles, he replaced the solid wood door to his office with one containing a window pane ‘so that everyone here gets to see how many hours I’m putting in.’ He may be advised to do similar at Carrington.

A few months in and it was clear Ten Hag’s tactical vision had been absorbed by his squad. 2018-19 was a spectacular season for Ajax – not only did they win a league and cup double, usurping PSV as Holland’s top team, but they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Having beaten Real Madrid and Juventus in spectacular fashion in the last-16 and quarter-finals respectively, they were one kick away from the final only to be left heartbroken by a Lucas Moura-inspired Tottenham.

It was quite the run considering Ajax had to begin in the second qualifying round on July 25 as a result of finishing second and Holland’s poor coefficient.

Ajax pulled off a sensational win over Real Madrid during Ten Hag’s first full season in charge

The way Ten Hag got the best out of Tadic, who scored 38 goals that season, including nine in Europe, owed a great deal to his chosen tactical approach.

It was a combination of 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 depending on opposition and circumstance, with Tadic leading the line and supported by the lightning pace of wingers Ziyech and David Neres.

In behind was Van de Beek to pick open opposition defences, with Lasse Schone and De Jong sat deeper in midfield.

It really comes as no surprise that De Jong, now at Barcelona, has been linked with a summer move to Old Trafford and Van de Beek, surplus to requirements under Rangnick and loaned to Everton, must be rubbing his hands together with glee.

But Daley Blind and Co were left crushed when Tottenham beat them late in the semi-final

An interesting sidenote about that memorable season was that Ajax were battered by their main rivals in the league – PSV beat then 3-0 in September and Feyenoord thrashed them 6-2 in January.

But Ajax won both return games on home turf and also beat Feyenoord 3-0 in their own backyard in the cup semi-finals. Overall, they won 28 of 34 games in the league and were worthy winners.

In all likelihood, United will continue to take some beatings when they come up against City and Liverpool next season but a consistency of results in other games must be found.

Ten Hag did end Ajax’s long wait to win the Eredivisie during a successful first full season

2019-20 SEASON

Ajax had dazzled Europe but they were always going to stripped of their best talents after coming within a whisker of reaching the Champions League final.

They duly sold De Jong to Barcelona and De Ligt to Juventus in the summer of 2019, with Ten Hag only able to reinvest a certain proportion of the profits.

But he impressively rebuilt the side nonetheless with Blind and Joel Veltman forming a central defensive partnership, and Edson Alvarez and Lisandro Martinez playing in midfield.

It was all about renewal and because Ten Hag presented such a clear vision of how he wanted his team to play, it was simple to bring in players with the necessary attributes and get them to buy in to his methods.

Hard graft on the training ground and behind the scenes has always come naturally to Ten Hag 

When Covid curtailed the Dutch season in early March, they topped the table on goal difference from AZ Alkmaar and looked a strong bet to win a second consecutive title.

Unlike in other European leagues, the Dutch authorities decided to cancel the remainder of the season and so the title was never awarded.

Ten Hag’s ability to reconstruct a team that has seen players depart certainly bodes well for United, who could lose up to 10 from the first-team squad this summer.

Hakim Ziyech was one talented young player Ten Hag invested plenty of time and effort in

We already know that Paul Pogba, Edinson Cavani, Jesse Lingard, Nemanja Matic and Juan Mata are going and the likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Dean Henderson and Anthony Martial could follow.

But the requirement to strengthen in numerous positions won’t faze Ten Hag, who will be given funds to spend in the summer market and no doubt already has a clear picture of players who will suit his system.

2020-21 SEASON

Another summer of farewells saw Ziyech, Van de Beek and Sergino Dest depart but Ajax enjoyed one of their most dominant seasons ever.

Despite Covid restricting crowds at the Johan Cruyff Arena, they won the league by a huge 16-point margin from PSV and finished 29 points after of PSV down in fifth.

They scored 102 goals – helped by a staggering 13-0 win over VVV-Venlo – and ended up with a goal difference of +79.

Ajax completely dominated the Dutch season in 2020-21, winning the league and the cup

They dropped points in only six league games and won the cup for good measure, underlining their superiority in Dutch football.

Yet again, Ten Hag’s team evolved out of necessity because of player sales but acquiring the likes of Antony, Davy Klaassen and Sebastien Haller continued his good hit rate when it comes to signings.

By the end of last season, it’s definitely fair to say both PSV and Feyenoord had been knocked off their perch.

2021-22 SEASON

Ten Hag’s final season with Ajax saw them reassert their supremacy by winning another title, finishing two points ahead of PSV and getting within two of a century of goals scored.

They failed to add the cup, losing 2-1 to PSV in the final, and disappointingly lost to Benfica in the last-16 of the Champions League.

Therefore, while it hasn’t been the most successful of Ten Hag’s reign, the outgoing manager certainly leaves Ajax in a position of strength in Dutch football as Alfred Schreuder comes in.

Ten Hag is thrown in the air by his players after they secured another Eredivisie title this year