Benni McCarthy names 2 Man United stars who stay behind ‘every single day’ to practice specific drills with him

Benni McCarthy has detailed how he sets up his training drills at Manchester United and which players stay behind ‘every single day’ to practice.

McCarthy, 45, joined The Red Devils as part of Erik ten Hag’s coaching staff at the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign.

Marcus Rashford has previously detailed the role that the South African has played in his resurgence at Old Trafford, whilst Ten Hag has explained that he brought McCarthy in because he wanted an attack-minded coach at the club.

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The United coach was assessed by Ten Hag before getting the role and has explained the pressure he felt was placed on his shoulders when taking a job working alongside top level footballers.

“Of course, I had to prove myself and I think coaching and what I bring to the table is stuff that can benefit them, that they can add to their training methods to make themselves better,” he told 947 Joburg.

“A lot of pressure was on me because these are world class players that you’re going to work with and you got to know your stuff. I put on [drills] that I would’ve loved when I was a striker, when I was a player.”

Further developing on his training methods, McCarthy says that he sets up drills that strikers ‘thrive’ for and that this has led to players being keen to work with him after training.

“Specific drills that strikers thrive for – that they love,” added the United coach when asked about his work. “For me, it’s all about working for consistency. They aren’t the most complicated drills but it’s situations that strikers face in a game seven out of ten times.

“The more I started doing that – it was Bruno, every day he wants to stay behind – and then after a while I started catching on that half the team was there, even the midfielders and defenders were coming to do finishing drills.”

Despite the popularity amongst the group at Carrington for these drills, McCarthy namedropped both Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford as players who practice these finishing drills every day.

“Bruno is there every single day almost and Rashy followed, and so fourth,” he added. “We created the culture where the finishing drills were about competitiveness and loads of repetition and also consistency of hitting the target or making the goalkeeper work to make saves.”

Rashford scored 30 goals in all competitions during the 2022/23 campaign, whilst Fernandes bagged 14 goals as United’s second-highest goalscorer across the season.