Ten Hag is in charge of the Manchester United reserve team to learn from Ajax’s experience, which will help the first team to select talents

January 1, according to the "Mirror" report, Manchester United coach Ten Hag has taken over the Red Devils
Reserve team, with a view to opening up a more adequate talent introduction channel for the first team.

The Dutchman revealed that he told Manchester United’s top management during the negotiations last spring that he would only agree to become the team’s new coach if he could also fully control the Manchester United U23-year-old team.
Ten Hag now works closely with United Under-23s chief Mark Dempsey and coach Paul McShane to make final decisions on all team selections, down to where and how many players will be played.

At Ajax, Ten Hag played a similar dual role, so he believes that this is the best way to accurately understand the talent situation in the entire team system.
He explained: "For me, the cooperation between all the different departments is crucial to get the right culture in the club. Just like at Ajax, when I took over Manchester United, the reserve team was the one that was taken over.
Isolated. The reserves were no longer part of the academy, but they were not part of the first team either. I changed that immediately – like when I first went to Amsterdam to manage."

"At Ajax, the reserves are also run by the first-team manager, and that’s the only way I can influence the flow of young, talented young players into the first team. Of course, I still give the reserves coaches work
Freedom, but I also give them direction, like ‘Which player do I want to start where and how many minutes’. So, the performance of the reserve team, and the flow of players from the reserve team to the first team, the ultimate responsibility
, I will bear it all."

It is reported that one of the important factors in Ten Hag’s decision to take up the post of Manchester United coach is that the club has a proud tradition of cultivating young players.
Since October 1937, Manchester United have had at least one homegrown talent in their first team every season.
However, when Ten Hag was in early talks to leave Ajax to take over at Old Trafford, he still felt that this needed to be improved.

Ten Hag said: "It was new and unheard of for people at Manchester United to do this, but I had already discussed it in my introductory meetings with the club management. They accepted it very quickly. … They have a lot of admiration for Ajax, because Ajax has always been able to successfully absorb young players into the first team through the club’s internal system. Ajax talent is always emerging, I explained, this is Because the basis of everything at Ajax is the youth academy. When I was at Ajax, when I came home from get off work in the evening, I would often see the under-8 or under-9 team training, and I would stop and watch .”

"The reserves are at the end of a player’s academy career and the first step to the first team. It’s about the structure between the academy director, the reserves coach and the first team coach, what I call ‘cooperation’
’. I discussed this at length with (director of football) John Murtaugh before I came to Manchester and he answered it in such a way that I could come here and still work like this.
"

"In the Netherlands, I’ve already taken a step at Ajax to take on more managerial roles at the same time. If you don’t have competent people around you, you can’t delegate and you have to do it yourself anyway. But if you do
There are talented people, you have to bring them into your vision and then you can delegate to them. An example is the training process of the first team. I know this is from (coach) Mitchell van der Garhe himself
With him. Because he’s in the training sessions, I’m often able to see the big picture. And then, as a manager, you can see a lot more than if you were leading the training yourself."

(Felix the cat)