Incredible video shows 13-year-old Erik ten Hag telling Johan Cruyff how coaches should communicate with players

Erik ten Hag has quickly transformed Manchester United from hopeless to hopeful in a matter of months, with his tactical knowledge and man-management being crucial to this.

The Dutch manager has brought together a ‘proper team’, as Bruno Fernandes put it, at Old Trafford and has helped several players turn their fortunes around at the club.

Ten Hag places importance on the handling of his players outside of the pitch, with rules and discipline being crucial to his squad. This man-management is not something that has come out of the blue.

In fact, an incredible video has emerged of Johan Cruyff speaking on Dutch television to a group of young footballers, with Ten Hag being one.

At 13-years-old, Ten Hag responded to Cruyff’s question on whether a coach should yell at young players with a fascinating answer.

“I think you should watch out that you don’t yell to the youth too much, because you can break a player like that,” said a youthful Ten Hag, transcribed by Twitter account RuudAzz.

“But on a higher level, such as the first team of Ajax, you should be able to say something about it. Those guys train almost every day in the week. If they keep making the same mistakes, you should be able to confront them.”

The footballing legend then asked, “So that means you differentiate between youth and paid football?”, to which Ten Hag simply responded: “Yes”.

The full video can be seen below:

When you consider the private nature of Alejandro Garnacho’s disciplinary punishments earlier in the season, you can tell that Ten Hag’s beliefs have stuck with him throughout his career.

Read More: Three changes Erik ten Hag should make as Man United face Crystal Palace in Premier League clash

It also shows a level of ruthlessness for first-team players, and with Ten Hag constantly asking for more from his team, it seems that this has also stayed with him.

Johan Cruyff is one of the great footballing minds in history and this clip of Ten Hag almost shows he was destined to become a top-level manager one day.