The unusual thing Erik ten Hag did in training before facing Liverpool

The new manager wanted to fire up his players by showing them what people were saying about them

23/08/2022, 08:55 PM +00:00

Manchester United got their first win in the Premier League this season after beating Liverpool last night at Old Trafford. This was also the first victory of Erik ten Hag in charge of the team. After losing against teams like Brighton and Brentford, the manager did something very particular the week prior to facing Liverpool to fire up his players and change their attitude.

It is being reported by Manchester correspondent for Daily Mirror, David McDonnel, that the Dutch manager motivated his players the week before facing Liverpool by showing them criticism from the media and social networks. Erik ten Hag reportedly printed copies of quotes from pundits and paste them into the interior of Carrington’s training center.

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The Daily Mirror added some of the quotes that were pasted all around the training ground. Some of the things that players read were: “United simply aren’t good enough”, “Liverpool to sin 5-0 again”, “Can’t run”, “Not a team”, and “They could go down”, among others. These past few weeks the players were very criticized by the media and former players.

Last week it was also reported by Paul Hirst from Times Sport, that Erik ten Hag made the players run 13.8 km during the training session after the 4-0 defeat against Brentford because that is the same distance the Bees players ran more collectively than the Manchester United players. The former Ajax coach also ran alongside them to prove how serious he was.

Finally an explanation

This would explain why Cristiano Ronaldo completely ignored Jamie Carragher before kick-off when he was caught by the Cameras of Sky Sports reaching over and saying hi to his former Manchester United teammates Gary Neville and Roy Keane, who are now pundits alongside Liverpool legend Carragher. The ex-Liverpool defender is one of the biggest critics of CR7 in recent weeks.