Erik ten Hag reveals Ruud van Nistelrooy’s surprising new Manchester United role

Erik ten Hag has explained a surprise role that Ruud van Nistelrooy has been given as Manchester United’s new assistant coach.

Manchester United have already made several changes in their senior management, bringing in Dan Ashworth, Jason Wilcox, and Omar Berrada. Now, the club is also revamping the coaching staff supporting Erik ten Hag.

This summer, Old Trafford welcomed four new coaches: Rene Hake and Ruud van Nistelrooy as assistant coaches, Andreas Georgson as the first-team coach with a focus on set pieces, and Jelle ten Rouwelaar as the goalkeeping coach.

Read More: Manchester United target ‘excited’ about potential transfer – £100k per week contract on table

In the meantime, Benni McCarthy, Mitchell van der Gaag, Richard Harris, and Steven McClaren have all departed, signalling a significant transformation in the coaching team both at Old Trafford and Carrington.

Van Nistelrooy’s appointment has come with particular excitement. The former Dutch striker is well-known to be a fan favourite at Old Trafford, and many are hoping he will improve the attacking abilities of players such as Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Højlund, and Alejandro Garnacho.

However, Ten Hag has also explained that although he knows the forwards will benefit from Van Nistelrooy, the Dutchman has also tasked him with helping the team’s defensive cohesion.

“Of course, strikers can take benefit from him because he was such a great striker,” Ten Hag recently told Sky Sports.

“He scored so many goals. He carried so much success. So yeah, definitely he will help the strikers in different areas. But definitely on the mental side, in bringing over his desire to win games by scoring goals.

“I have a strong belief in the person and a strong belief in his skills to help our team score goals. But also to help our team work as a team, and that means we are attacking with 11.

“So it’s the one in the end who finishes (the striker), but he is part of 11 players. And so we will also act as if we have to defend with 11 players, and the front players are the first defenders.”

Ruud himself has previously explained that it is important to make sure the team act on a collective level and understands each other as a group of 11 across all areas of the pitch.

“On a collective level, it’s important to get the different game phases into the team, what is expected in the pressing or in the build-up or in the mid-block or in all the phases of the game,” he recently explained to club media.

“Like clear: what do we want? How do we want the execution to be, and how do we translate it into the training pitch?

“I think we both are aligned with that and also with the manager, of course, and from there on you look to make an influence on individuals or units.

“In the end, when we’re on one page, then we are definitely the strongest. That’s our aim and it will take time, but I think we had a good start so far.”

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.