Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth have revealed that Erik Ten Hag has the complete support of the club’s football leadership team, Soccernet.football reports.
The Red Devils have made another poor start to the Premier League campaign in Ten Hag’s third season in charge at Old Trafford, creating an all too familiar feeling for club supporters.
Sunday’s 3-0 loss against Liverpool on home turf was United’s second defeat from their first three opening games of the season. These results have understandably raised questions about Ten Hag’s ability to get the job done.
The Dutchman scaled an end-of-season review conducted by the club’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS sporting director Sir Dave Brailsford, despite United achieving their lowest finish in Premier League history.
He received a contract extension along with immense backing in the transfer market, thanks to the new football hierarchy. The changes extended to his coaching staff with the likes of Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Rene Hake coming on board.
Despite the early troubling signs, both Berrada and Ashworth insist that Ten Hag has their complete support. They view the 54-year-old as a top manager capable of leading United to success with the right structure around him.
“Erik has our full backing and we have worked very closely together, as Dan has said before, in this transfer window,” Berrada told Sky Sports.
“We’re going to continue working very closely with him to help him get the best results out of the team.
“Do we still believe in Erik? Absolutely. We think Erik is the right coach for us and we’re fully backing him.”
Ashworth added: “Very rarely do you go into a job as a sporting director and there’s no manager in place. All I can do is reiterate I’ve really enjoyed working with Erik for the last eight weeks.
“I see my job is to support him in every way I possibly can, and whether that’s operationally, whether that’s with recruitment, whether that’s with medical, whether that’s with psychology, whether that’s training ground flow, it’s just to take as much of that off him to allow him to fully focus on the training pitch and the match tactical plan to deliver success for Manchester United.”
