Erik ten Hag sends extremely promising message to Man United fans – he’s learnt his lesson from last season

Erik ten Hag has sent an extremely promising message to Manchester United supporters. It seems that he’s learned a lesson from last season.

The United manager is looking ahead to his third season at Old Trafford, and there have been ups and downs since he was appointed.

He returns to Wembley to face Manchester City this weekend. That exact fixture in the FA Cup final back in May appeared to save his job.

One of the major problems from last term was the injury crisis across the squad. There were various reasons for this, including Ten Hag’s lack of rotation.

There are several players, including Luke Shaw, who have not travelled for the game against Pep Guardiola’s side.

While many feared that these were long-term injuries to join Rasmus Højlund and Leny Yoro, the United boss has explained that these absences are not necessarily all down to injuries.

He told reporters: “With some of them, I also wouldn’t call it an injury, but it’s part of building up into the season and a precaution.

“Because they had issues in the pre-season and in the spring. So it’s a continual process with them to build them up into a new season.”

The Dutchman has regularly discussed the benefits of fielding a similar team from game to game. Patterns can be worked on, and relationships can be built, yet none of that will be worthwhile if players experience burnout or injury.

Right now, the Reds are in no position to risk players for the Community Shield and while Ten Hag and his squad want to win against their City rivals, they have a bigger picture in mind with the Premier League around the corner.

“We know already we can beat City, and that doesn’t depend on the result on Saturday, and that will not change that belief because, yeah, the FA Cup win was a much higher occasion than the game on Saturday, but nevertheless, we want to win,” added Ten Hag.

“We showed in all occasions – more than that one – that we can beat City. So we have to believe, but we don’t want to take risks with players and lose players for a long period because that is what we have to take from last season.

“When you are getting in a pattern with [players] missing due to many injuries, missing players in the same unit of a team affects the results. And yeah, we want to go up in the season and to get the results but then players have to be available.”

There are certainly some positives to take from these comments from the boss. Fans will be hoping that he has truly learnt his lesson when looking at rotation.

Unfortunately, the squad at his disposal is still not nearly ideal for proper squad rotation, but INEOS are working hard to get two or three more signings over the line before the transfer deadline at the end of the month.

Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is released every Thursday at 6 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.