ERIK’S RED ALERT
United will turn to Ajax coach Ten Hag should they fail in bid to get Pochettino next summer
ERIK TEN HAG is the alternative target for Manchester United if their No1 choice, Mauricio Pochettino, does not become the club’s new manager next summer.
Pochettino is the favourite to take over from new interim boss Ralf Rangnick in June, providing the Argentine can cut short his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
But Sportsmail understands that United will turn to Ajax coach Ten Hag if the club are unsuccessful in their attempt to appoint Pochettino. Ten Hag (right) is said to be interested in the United job and Ajax would not stand in his way if he wants to leave at the end of the season, even though the 51-year-old is under contract until 2023.
The two clubs enjoy a good relationship and Ajax chief executive Edwin van der Sar, the former United goalkeeper, played a key role in Donny van de Beek’s £40million move to Old Trafford.
Ten Hag is viewed as one of the most progressive coaches in Europe and was approached by Tottenham to replace Jose Mourinho before deciding to sign a contract extension with Ajax in April.
Rangnick, 63, is set to be confirmed as United’s interim boss until the end of the season when he will hand over to a permanent successor and take up a consultancy role.
United yesterday reached an agreement with Lokomotiv Moscow for Rangnick, their head of sports and development, to move to Old Trafford.
Michael Carrick will remain in the hotseat when Chelsea host Manchester United tomorrow — and Blues boss Thomas Tuchel admits he was, and still is, expecting more from the visitors this season.
Perhaps it will come once his former mentor Rangnick, a man he considers a tactical equal to the best coaches the Premier League has to offer, takes charge.
United are eighth, 12 points off leaders Chelsea after just 12 games, despite adding Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo to their squad in the summer. ‘Yeah, I was (expecting more) and maybe I still am,’ said Tuchel. ‘I will never write anybody off, not in this league and not in this game. It is a very experienced, top-level group of players.’ Rangnick is a Godfather-like figure in German football and the inspiration for many of the coaches who came after him like Tuchel. Tuchel played under him at Ulm. Rangnick then helped Tuchel on his way in management, handing him his first coaching role in the youth set-up at the same club.
Tuchel insists Rangnick will slip into the top bracket of leading tactical coaches in the Premier League.
‘Tactically, for sure, he is an elite manager,’ he said. ‘He helped me a lot because he was my coach. And then he was one of the main figures to convince me to try coaching. So a huge influence on all of us at this time, because he showed it’s not necessary to follow people to the toilet in football games, because there was the belief in these days that the defenders follow their strikers wherever they go. He showed us it’s possible to defend everybody.
‘He was one of the very first to implement a back four in Germany and introduce the style of not man-marking and still being aggressive. He introduced 4-4-2 and high pressing and is still one of the leaders of this in German football.’
United have mimicked Chelsea, not just by changing manager mid-season in pursuit of an upturn like the Blues experienced last season under Tuchel, but also by going for a German manager in a similar mould.
Tuchel said: ‘There is no recipe. I can’t give any advice because everybody needs to do it their own way.
‘For me, it was luck to arrive here. We are a perfect fit and I do my very best to stay.
‘Everyone tries to find their own solution: who’s available, who wants to have the job, who is capable of doing the job? But that is their (United’s) thing to do and we will not help!’
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp backed up Tuchel, saying: ‘Unfortunately, a good coach is coming to England! Ralf built most famously two clubs from nowhere to proper threats and forces in Germany with Hoffenheim and Leipzig.
‘United will be organised on the pitch. That’s not good news for other teams! But all coaches need time to train with our teams and Ralf will pretty quickly realise he has no time to train as they play all the time, so that makes it a bit tricky for him.
‘In the football world in Germany, he is very, very well regarded, and rightly so. He had a mentor when he was a very young coach, his name was Helmut Gross, then he had this influence from there.’