John Giles joined Richie McCormack on Thursday to discuss Erik ten Hag and Manchester United.
Manchester United announced Erik ten Hag as their next manager on Thursday.
The Ajax manager was expected to be appointed before the announcement, but now confirmation is here and the speculation has begun. Manchester United fans want the next Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola. But even if ten Hag is what Brendan Rodgers was for Liverpool, it will be a huge success.
Manchester United have too many problems. They won't win the Premier League or Champions League next year. Aiming for progress is what they need to do. As such, expectations for Erik ten Hag should be muted.
John Giles believes that ten Hag must focus on establishing himself internally initially.
"He's got to show the players, in his approach and his attitude and his personality, is that I'm in charge of this situation now," Giles said.
"And I'm going to do the best I can for this club. I think he should say 'This is going to take a little bit of time because I'm here to judge everybody on their merits and I've got to make up my mind.' Get to know the place. Get to know his best team as soon as he possibly can."
Manchester United is often described as a big job. A job where managers have to be more than just football people. But that's also the problem at Manchester United. Klopp and Guardiola first and foremost are football-obsessed managers. Ten Hag fits that bill. He just doesn't have the same track record as those coaches yet so he has to establish himself.
Ten Hag will have to rebuild the Manchester United squad and that will take time.
There are players at the club who will stay with the team, but there is also a lot of dead wood. Some of that dead wood will be gone before ten Hag even arrives, which makes his job easier. But the players who are in the squad should all be given fresh starts, according to Giles.
"What he says to the players in the first meeting is not going to be that important. It's what he's thinking and what he has to do to judge these players, get to know them on the field. What they can do, what they can't do. Who are the good lads, who are the chancers.
"That's going to take a fair bit of time to do that. Keep it simple from his point of view: 'I'm here to do a job. I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it as best I can. This is what I expect from you. So I'm going to give everybody a chance, I'm going to watch everything. And in time I'm going to make up my mind about who is going to stay and who is going to go.'"
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