Absent for games and story complaints – why Man United had to change coaches

Steve McClaren was driven into Carrington on Monday morning. His exuberant coaching sessions may be tempered in the first weeks of pre-season as onlookers said McClaren emerged from his car on crutches.

He was at least back in the building. Colleagues on the coaching staff who drove into Carrington daily last season are no longer Manchester United employees while three new faces were ferried in past security.

United recorded their worst league finish in 34 years with a minus goal difference and took the wooden spoon in their Champions League group. Heads had to roll. The head coach’s didn’t.

But the new Ineos cabal wanted heads on a plate. So Benni McCarthy and Richard Hartis have got the chop. United are yet to confirm if Ten Hag’s assistant, Mitchell van der Gaag, has as well.

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United have not actually confirmed the appointments of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Rene Hake and Jelle ten Rouwelaar. The stories about their arrivals were written last month and last week and they have all been pictured at Carrington.

The word is United are waiting to obtain working visas. An in-principle statement would have sufficed and United could have wrested some control of the story.

United will go hot and heavy on the return of club great Van Nistelrooy in the hope the giddiness glosses over Ineos foisting new coaches onto Ten Hag whilst depriving him of some time-served allies.

It smacks of compromise. Three new staff but they are all Dutch, giving the illusion Ten Hag is still in control. The seniority of Van Nistelrooy and Hake, previously the managers of PSV Eindhoven and Go Ahead Eagles, possibly dilutes his influence.

United will have a former Ajax manager, a former PSV manager, a former Go Ahead Eagles manager and a former Twente manager in the dugout. That raises questions about the manager’s authority.

Especially as United undermined Ten Hag in their process of retaining him. They sounded out every Tom, Dick and Harry to replace him. Then, to supposedly safeguard his future, they merely triggered the one-year option in his contract.

Hiring three Dutchmen to support a Dutch manager with a predilection for Dutch hires somewhat contradicts the high performance and game model jargon the new United structure abide by.

United will doubtless clarify Ten Hag fully approves of and welcomes the new additions, that they won’t tread on his toes. The coaches’ office at Carrington is adjoined to the manager’s but Ten Hag will be the only one who occupies that plush space.

If McCarthy was such a key coach he would have travelled to every away game. There were several last season he was not present for. Van der Gaag, Ten Hag’s assistant at Ajax, would be a potentially significant loss.

Van der Gaag is a fluent Portuguese speaker and has been a particularly key conduit with Casemiro. Casemiro’s relevance is questionable after a sorry season that culminated in his demotion from the FA Cup final starting XI.

Hartis had to fall on his sword. An academy goalkeeping coach in the 2000s, he was one of the old boys’ club recruits by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019, having worked with him at Molde.

United’s goalkeeping department has chronically underperformed since Hartis started leading the sessions. David de Gea was so unconvincing in the 2019-20 season that Dean Henderson was brought into the fold for 2020-21. Solskjaer was so indecisive with the two custodians he adjusted the pattern of rotation so that De Gea, suddenly the cup ‘keeper, would start the Europa League final. United effectively ended the season without an outright No.1.

Solskjaer reneged on his pledge to install Henderson as No.1 after he contracted Covid-19 in July 2021. De Gea impressed in 2021-22 but United didn’t. They lost 12 Premier League games and finished in sixth. United kept the most clean sheets in 2022-23 yet De Gea was jettisoned and Andre Onana signed. Only Onana was worse in his first season than De Gea was in his last season.

Hartis cannot be held responsible for Solskjaer’s mismanagement or Ten Hag requiring a year to assess De Gea (even though Onana was a free agent in the summer of 2022). But De Gea failed to adapt, major mistakes crept into his game and Onana let in upwards of a dozen saveable shots. Something was amiss on the training ground.

United are not short of sensitive staff and Hartis was another. When the Manchester Evening News reported Henderson’s early return to Carrington in July 2020, Hartis fretted that he would have to reassure De Gea when he reported back at base. Hartis also complained about a piece on the United website, hardly an incendiary news source, that was supportive of Henderson.

Under Solskjaer, Hartis was in the dugout and would step into the technical area whenever United had a set-piece to defend, vainly attempting to choreograph their set-up. During Ten Hag’s tenure, he was downgraded to a seat in the stands with the analysts.

The irony is new goalkeeping coach Ten Rouwelaar was working with the gaffe-prone James Trafford and Arijanet Muric at relegated Burnley last season. Like McCarthy, he is also an Ajax alumni. McClaren isn’t but earned his stripes at Twente. And a Dutch accent.