Who is The New Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag? Playing Style, Clubs Managed & Trophies:



    Erik ten Hag has been appointed as the new permanent manager of Manchester United.

With the team eighth in the Premier League, the Red Devils let Ole Gunnar Solskjaer leave in late November 2021, and they have been stepping up their hunt for a permanent manager in recent weeks. Since Solskjaer's departure, United has been led by interim manager Ralf Rangnick, but a permanent replacement has been rumored.

On April 21st, United confirmed Ten Hag has agreed a three-year contract, with the option of an additional year, to become the fifth permanent manager at Old Trafford since the retirement of the great Alex Ferguson in 2013.

"It is a great honour to be appointed manager of Manchester United and I am hugely excited by the challenge ahead," he said.

"I know the history of this great club and the passion of the fans, and I am absolutely determined to develop a team capable of delivering the success they deserve."

Who is Erik ten Hag?

Erik ten Hag

At 52 years old, Netherlands-born Erik ten Hag has grown through the ranks of Dutch football, first as a player and now as a coach.

Ten Hag was born in the town of Haaksbergen, in the Twente region of the Netherlands. He enjoyed a 13-year playing career, earmarked by three separate spells with Eredivisie side FC Twente.

Considered one of the rising managerial stars in world football, Ten Hag has been in coaching since 2012, a period of 10 years after his retirement as a player.


The former FC Twente defender resigned from playing in 2002 after spending eight of his 12 seasons with the club. After retiring, he stayed on to coach in the Twente junior system, taking command of the Under-17 and Under-19 teams before moving up to assistant manager under Fred Rutten and Steven McClaren on the senior side.

In 2009, he left Twente and rejoined Rutten at PSV, where he helped lead the squad to a Dutch Cup victory.

Ten Hag's first senior managerial position came with Go Ahead Eagles in the Eerste Divisie (second division), where he was brought in by shareholder Marc Overmars. In his first and only season in charge, he would help the club gain promotion to the top division via a playoff, before leaving to join Pep Guardiola's managing staff at Bayern Munich's reserve squad.


Ten Hag returned to the Netherlands after two seasons in Germany to take leadership of Eredivisie side FC Utrecht, where he was appointed as manager and sporting director. He guided Utrecht to fifth and fourth place finishes in the league, the latter being the club's third-best ever and best since the 1980s, gaining Europa League participation in the process.

ClubDatesRecord (W-L-D)Win Percentage
GoAheadEaglesJuly 1, 2012 - June 6 201318-10-1146.2%
Bayern MunichIIJune 6, 2013 - May 22, 201548-14-1066.7%
FC UtrechtMay 23, 2015 - Dec. 27, 201756-29-2650.5%
AFC AjaxDec. 28, 2017 - Present155-29-2673.8%

Erik ten Hag trophies & honors:

Ten Hag's first three management stints were trophy-less, which was understandable given that he was in charge of lesser clubs, but that changed when he joined Ajax.


Since taking over as manager of the Dutch giants, Ten Hag has led the team to the Dutch league title twice and the Dutch Cup both times in the same season. Had COVID-19 not ended the Dutch league early in 2019-20 with the club topping the table, he might have won a third trophy, but no title was granted. This season, Ajax is leading the Eredivisie and is four points ahead of second-placed PSV, who they defeated in the cup final earlier this month.

He has yet to win a major trophy in Europe, but he has had some success, most recently in the 2018-19 season, when he led the team to the Champions League semifinals, defeating Real Madrid along the way. Tottenham pulled off a dramatic comeback to win 3-2 on aggregate, bringing the run to an end.

Ten Hag has won the Dutch league's Coach of the Year award twice, first with FC Utrecht in 2016 and again with Ajax after their incredible season in 2019. He also came in fourth place in FIFA's global Coach of the Year award that year.

Erik ten Hag silverware:

  • Eredivisie title2018-19, 2020-21
  • KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup): 2018-19, 2020-21
  • Johan Cruyff Shield: 2019

Erik ten Hag awards & honors:

  • Rinus Michaels Coach of the Year Award: 2016, 2019
  • FIFA The Best Award, Men's Head Coach: 2019 (4th place)

Erik ten Hag managerial style:

Erik ten Hag, who freely admits to being highly influenced by Pep Guardiola during his time at Bayern Munich, uses an aggressive 4-2-4 formation at Ajax, which has been a huge success this season.

After a disappointing two-year stay at West Ham, striker Sebastien Haller has scored an astounding 46 goals in 59 Ajax games, demonstrating the attacking mindset. As of April 3, the team had set an exceptional goal difference in Eredivisie competition, with an incredible 83 goals scored against only 14 goals conceded in 28 games played in 2021-22.

In 2019, Ten Hag noted, "I learned a lot from Guardiola." "What he did in Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and now Manchester City exemplifies his ideology. He has a lot of success because of his aggressive and appealing manner. This is the structure I've attempted to construct using Ajax."

While a 4-2-4 formation can be lethal, Ajax also benefits from being a large fish in a small pond, padding its numbers against Eredivisie teams that are significantly inferior. His Champions League campaign in 2018-19 featured a similar but slightly more pragmatic 4-3-3 formation with a double-pivot in midfield, which has its origins in Dutch football but has grown in popularity around the world over the previous decade.

He's also been known to use a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-2 diamond on occasion, though his versions of those formations all have the same essential principles: a pair of attacking midfielders who play off each other in the middle, and a pair of aggressive wingers who pin opposition full-backs to their own end lines.
Ten Hag's commitment to Total Football, the Dutch-born theory of overloading critical areas of the pitch both on and off the ball, is what distinguishes him as a manager. This method takes advantage of players' adaptability in various places on the field, allowing them to move freely across the field. Over the last 15-20 years, this has become widely accepted around the world.