Exclusive: Ten Hag doesn’t want to lose Man United duo despite lack of game time and transfer speculation
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is keen to keep both Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay despite them not being regular starters for the club for much of this season.According to Ben Jacobs in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, the Red Devils boss has made it clear that there is a way back into his team […]
The post Exclusive: Ten Hag doesn’t want to lose Man United duo despite lack of game time and transfer speculation appeared first on CaughtOffside.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is keen to keep both Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay despite them not being regular starters for the club for much of this season.
According to Ben Jacobs in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, the Red Devils boss has made it clear that there is a way back into his team for both players, with no one getting any preferential treatment just because of their status or trophy haul prior to this season.
Ten Hag is keen to create a more equal environment at Old Trafford, and Jacobs has praised the job he’s done with that so far, explaining that his approach with backup players like Maguire and McTominay is key to how he builds team spirit.
It remains to be seen when we might get a glimpse of Maguire and McTominay back on the pitch, but it seems fans can expect them not to be sold in this transfer window, whatever other reports might be suggesting.
Jacobs even stressed that United sources have often laughed off any questions about links between Maguire and other clubs, particularly speculation involving Chelsea in the summer.
“This is what Ten Hag is all about – he makes players feel driven, and he doesn’t favour anybody; there’s always equality in the squad, he won’t necessarily have automatic starters, there’s no ego,” Jacobs said.
“For instance, Ten Hag wants to keep Scott McTominay, because even though Casemiro has come in and most would say he’s been outstanding and surely now an automatic starter, that’s not how Ten Hag works. He’s trying to invest in a player like McTominay, saying to him that he can still fight for a place and that no one’s going to be getting into the side because they’ve won however many league titles or Champions League titles at previous clubs or in previous seasons.
“This creates the feeling that if you train really well, you can change the narrative and affect who’s picked. Ten Hag also wants to keep Harry Maguire at the club – there’s going to be interest in him, but Ten Hag’s perspective remains that Maguire is integral to Manchester United.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Maguire being linked with a move away, but when you put these links to club sources they’re laughed at, especially the one over the summer with Chelsea. So we have to be careful with Maguire, because he’s been wrongly caricatured during his time at United, and that’s partly because they paid such a large amount of money for him and also the fact that he’s unfortunately made errors at times and been inconsistent.
“Still, I think Maguire is buying into the Ten Hag mentality, so we need to not just look at his past – he had a very good World Cup, so there’s no way you’d want to lose a player like that in January, because he’s shown what he can do when he’s at his very best.
“Unless the player decides he’s desperate to get out, I don’t see a scenario where the club force him out, especially in the short term. I think it’s more about if the time ever comes about that he feels it’s time to move on, then the club will try to support him and find the right move. But the England Maguire is not a player Ten Hag or United would want to lose.”
The post Exclusive: Ten Hag doesn’t want to lose Man United duo despite lack of game time and transfer speculation appeared first on CaughtOffside.