Former Manchester United assistant Benni McCarthy has given damning insight into Erik ten Hag’s failings at Old Trafford.
Champions League winner McCarthy was added to Ten Hag’s coaching staff in 2022 before leaving the club this summer.
In a tell-all interview, the ex-Porto and Blackburn striker accused the Dutchman of lacking passion and players of not training hard enough.
It is another blow for Ten Hag, who is under a huge amount of pressure at Man United following a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.
talkSPORT understands he has been given just two matches to save his job and there are calls for him to be sacked.
Read more on Erik ten Hag
Perhaps McCarthy’s most insightful view was on Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit from the club at the end of 2022.
There was a falling out with Ten Hag, which led to a bombshell interview with Piers Morgan.
Asked if a separation was inevitable, McCarthy told Zero Zero: “Yes, it was inevitable. In the end he left the club and chose Al Nassr. He is proving to everyone that he can still score goals. If we work as a team and then let Cristiano do what he needs to do in his position, because he is the best in the world at it, that is ideal.
“I think Manchester United wasted a great opportunity to use Cristiano in the right way. But I was not the head coach and I could not be the one to make those decisions.
“It wasn’t easy because Cristiano is a huge character. He has his one personality, his own maturity, and he wants a coach who understands him too. At a certain point, it’s true, things started not working out between them.
“Erik had his philosophy, his ideas and he didn’t see Cristiano being part of them. And that’s when problems started. Cristiano wasn’t happy when he wasn’t playing because he gave everything he could in training. He trains like I’ve never seen anyone train before. He’s an elite player in every way, even in his behaviour.
“He would arrive at training very early, maybe two hours before everyone else started arriving. He was the most impressive athlete I have ever met in my life. Not all athletes have what it takes to be like that. Unfortunately, the coach’s philosophy was different from what he had envisioned.
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“[Ten Hag] wanted a forward who could press up front. And Cristiano believed that this work should be done by the team as a whole. With him, in some areas, the best thing to do was to give him the ball and let him do his thing.
“Cristiano saw Ten Hag opting for [Anthony] Martial and [Marcus] Rashford in the ‘9’ position and he wasn’t happy because he felt superior to all of them. The coach saw things differently.”
McCarthy spent two years seeing Ten Hag work and it will not provide any comfort for Man United fans.
“In modern football, I believe that players want to see a bit more passion in their coach,” McCarthy continued.
“They need to feel that the coach is with them and willing to fight alongside them. Tactically, I feel that Erik is at the top. He lacks a bit of that fire, that passion. That’s where we differ, him and I.
“I want to be at his level in terms of tactical mastery. I think my greatest strength is the empathy I create with the players and that allows them to play at a level that combines passion, determination and desire. That’s how you win games, especially the most demanding ones.
“That’s the difference – that fire I feel inside me, that hunger I have. Erik is more conservative. He gives all the information to the players and then expects them to comply on the pitch.
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“Sometimes I didn’t see in him that passion I spoke of. He has a different personality, a different profile. I think that was one of the difficulties that the team and the players encountered.”
It was not only Ten Hag who was in McCarthy’s firing line as he also took aim at a number of the Man United players.
“If some of the Manchester United players had what Bruno and Diogo have, it would have been easier to achieve good results,” McCarthy said.
“They both trained with incredible concentration, giving everything they had. Some of the others didn’t do the same.
“This ended up limiting United’s progress, because some players weren’t training to the best of their ability.
“Even in games, the data showed us that some players were at their peak performance and others a little below. It didn’t help the team to be successful.”
