Erik ten Hag interview: Man Utd's use of data, impact of legends’ criticism, and ‘special’ Mainoo

21.10.2026, 11:08 skysports.com

A message on my phone buzzes. "I pick you up at the station." It is Erik ten Hag offering a lift in his car once my train from Amsterdam arrives in Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands. It is delayed, but he doesn't seem to mind.

Soon after, he pulls up in a silver Range Rover and gets out to exchange a handshake. He has finished a day's work at FC Twente's stadium, De Grolsch Veste, where he is technical director.

A short while later, he is driving us through picturesque Dutch countryside on the way to Ros van Twente, the hotel he co-owns with his brothers, Michel and Rico, and John Berghaan and Anita Stappenbeld, who run it. "They got married two weeks ago as a surprise," says Ten Hag, grinning.

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Two years on from the end of his time in charge of Manchester United, Ten Hag is in a relaxed mood. As we weave through the flat fields, he provides a history of the place. "The Germans were here in the Second World War, but also the English and Americans afterwards - they lived here on the base of the military airport," he says.

Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle comes out of the speakers as his car stereo goes through a 1980s playlist. "In this period it was real music; now everything is computer," he adds.

He moves on to a devastating event in the year 2000 that affected him while playing for FC Twente. A fireworks depot that supplied pop concerts exploded, killing 23 people, including four firefighters, injuring 950, and destroying 400 homes. Ten Hag says it was lucky the blast didn't hit the propane drums at the Grolsch brewing factory on the outskirts of town; otherwise, the damage would have been even more severe.

Twente's training ground was close by and players' families and friends were hurt, but the club ordered the squad to complete their final match of the season the next day, a trip to Feyenoord. Afterwards, Ten Hag gave an interview to broadcast media and criticised the executives.

"The leadership of the club were mad at me, but they had made the decision to play," explains Ten Hag. "Everyone is agreeing now: you can't play football when your city is burning."

Ten Hag speaking his mind is a theme that comes up repeatedly as we talk in a private dining room at the hotel. He opens up like never before on many key aspects of his time in charge of Manchester United and his career since, including:

His 'strange' three-game spell at Bayer Leverkusen

In January 2023, Ten Hag needed a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo at centre-forward. He used his Dutch connections to loan Wout Weghorst from Burnley, and to this day feels the striker's work off the ball was a contributing factor in Marcus Rashford hitting 30 goals that season.

"Wout did well for us; what he took out of his career is amazing," says Ten Hag. "Like Marcel Sabitzer. We got success, winning the League Cup, third position; we were a team because they worked hard. Wout was one of the reasons Rashford was so important."

Weghorst, standing at 6ft 6in (198cm), made an unexpected appearance as a No 10 in the Camp Nou, where Rashford went up top and scored in a 2-2 draw against Barcelona. United came from behind to win 2-1 in the home leg, a last-32 tie in the Europa League, one of the great recent European nights at Old Trafford.

Weghorst then started up top in the Carabao Cup win over Newcastle United at Wembley, sliding a pass through to Rashford, who finished to make the score 2-0.

A week later, United got thumped 7-0 at Anfield.

"The team was not consistent," says Ten Hag. "On our good day we could match the best teams in the league, in the world, I would even say. On the worst day, we sat below the bottom. And then in Liverpool, obviously, we went below the bottom, also mentality-wise. It was the next Premier League game after we won the League Cup. We were on the high; we went up there, maybe we were too confident, and we got punished. Every attack was a goal."

But the game in which Ten Hag feels his reign changed was the quarter-final of the Europa League a month later, when United were knocked out 5-2 on aggregate by Sevilla, having been 2-0 up in the first leg. "The team couldn't play without two players," he says, naming Lisandro Martinez (Licha) and Bruno Fernandes.

"Licha was so important for us to play from the back, but also the winning mentality, winning duels. And Bruno. In that game (first leg), at 2-0 up, I decided to sub Bruno, 30 minutes from time, and then Lisandro broke his foot."

United finished the season with 27 home wins, equalling a club record across a campaign, but they would have broken it had they held on at Old Trafford against Sevilla.

Ten Hag had shown his faith in Fernandes by naming him captain. "I think it was good for the team, the best solution, and for him it was good as well. Obviously he has some pros and cons, but he has great game understanding, he's a top professional, and he always gives his best; lifestyle good. Every day, he goes to the limit; he's driving it."

Ten Hag laughs. "Sometimes he's getting emotional, but he's a winner."

Ten Hag allowed Fernandes tactical latitude on the pitch. "I gave him some freedom in the game plan. I think I'm always quite self-critical and reflective. I have to say I can't see a game where the players didn't want to transfer the game plan onto the pitch. They were always trying because I think they believed in what we did."

Pre-season before the 2023-24 season, during which United flew to New Jersey, San Diego, Houston and Las Vegas, pointed at issues ahead. Flying 13,650 miles across the Atlantic, from city to city, impacted the players, Ten Hag reveals.

"The tour was so much expectation on the players," he says. "We got exhausted from all the kilometres. We started in New York, we played in Houston, we played in Vegas, went back, we gave them a couple of days off, and then we didn't train proper tactical and physical work for 10 days because they were totally killed… We were never fit."

Kobbie Mainoo, then 18, suffered an ankle injury against Real Madrid in Texas. When he finally made his first Premier League start, at Everton, he was named man of the match in a 3-0 win.

Ten Hag knew he had struck gold from the academy when he was first drawn to Mainoo in July 2022. "The first time I saw him, playing for the second team, I thought, 'OK, he's an amazing talent'. But he was too easy. I saw that we needed him to get in a higher intensity. We started to bring him in drills where we challenged him on dynamics."

Mainoo has recently praised the sessions put on by Ten Hag and his assistant, Mitchell van der Gaag. He told Clarence Seedorf on Amazon Prime how training was "tough" but among "the best" of his career, adding: "The intensity and competitiveness of those sessions really helped me in that time."

Ten Hag laughs. He gets sent all the quotes from players criticising his regime, but this is one that hasn't been passed on to him. "Kobbie is, for me, special. A lot of people were building him, supporting him. But in the end, he's doing it by himself."

United's injuries continued that season, though, and results suffered. Ten Hag picked 13 different centre-back combinations and changed his back four 29 times. "So it's almost impossible to get automatism in," he says. "But I know at the top, it's about the result."

Ten Hag adds: "Expectations at United are so huge, everyone is expecting the team to win the league every year. But be fair, United at that time, and also definitely two years after, are not able to win the league.

"We could have won the title if we had continued on building. But in that time we were not consistent enough; the squad was not good enough to win it."

In October 2024, United's executives decided Ten Hag was not the man to lead them to a title challenge. The writing appeared on the wall after his job was so publicly at risk around the FA Cup final triumph over Manchester City five months earlier. But he insists his maverick choice to start Mazraoui at No 10 at Fenerbahce in his penultimate game was not a last roll of the dice, but rather a selection Jose Mourinho would not predict.

"Not everything comes out in Carrington," says Ten Hag, chuckling about news leaking from United's training ground. "That's me; I surprised them also in the FA Cup final, and often I got it right. That's not a risk to put Mazraoui there… But sometimes I have to go more in the head of a fan or media, to think that they think it's weird. For me, it was logic."

Ten Hag started loanee Sofyan Amrabat in the FA Cup final against Manchester City, instead of Casemiro, to get more coverage in midfield. United then bought Manuel Ugarte that summer but Ten Hag thinks he could have instead kept Scott McTominay and saved money on Amrabat. He says: "I wanted to keep Sofyan Amrabat, they didn't. I think he did a great job at United."

Ten Hag was scrutinised by pundits for his call in Istanbul, and for much else in his tenure, but he has a sanguine response to a question about the impact on United of the host of former players giving their views as pundits. Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt all regularly pass comment, occasionally sharply, on their YouTube shows as well as more mainstream channels.

"It's everywhere the same; they always want to protect their legacies," says Ten Hag. "It's no different than Bayern Munich or Ajax; they do the same. But they are (part of United's) history, and they do not always know what's going on. Football evolves. For United, it's clear: they had great contributions, they achieved massive results, trophies for the club and for themselves, so I respect them.

"I have to say, I had a very good relationship with them all, with Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand. I did nice interviews with them both, so