Inside Man Utd’s intense training sessions as Ten Hag forces stars to do push-ups every time they concede
ERIK TEN HAG has been making Manchester United stars perform push-ups after conceding goals in training.
The new Red Devils boss has taken a hands on role since taking his side to Thailand.
In a training session opened up to 15,000 fans at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Ten Hag put his players through a rigorous work-out.
The Dutchman oversaw proceedings as assistants Mitchell van der Gaag and Steve McClaren worked with two separate groups of United players.
During one drill, stars were forced to do five push-ups if they couldn’t complete five passes in a minute.
A game of eight defenders vs seven attackers then ensued, with similar consequences.
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The attacking team shot into a regular sized goal guarded by Nathan Bishop, while the defenders shot into a small, unguarded net on the halfway line.
Every time the defenders scored, The Athletic report that the attackers were forced to drop for five push-ups.
Impressive youngster Zidane Iqbal drew praise from Ten Hag, and also managed to get his more experienced team-mates to drop to the ground after beating Fred before rolling the ball home.
Ten Hag is desperate to put his own stamp on things already, with an emphasis being placed on attacking patterns and triangles.
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McClaren has attempted to lighten the mood, however, telling jokes when opportunities arise.
Ten Hag hinted at his starting line-up for today’s match with his attackers vs defenders drill.
Fred and Donny van de Beek played in midfield, with Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho on the flanks.
Bruno Fernandes was deployed in a No10 position, with forgotten man Anthony Martial up front.
Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof started at centre-back.
Skipper Harry Maguire, who will be keeping the armband this season, took part in a lighter session having suffered with a minor injury.
The England defender described his first pre-season under Ten Hag to United’s official media team, saying: “Yeah, I think training’s been tough. As a group of players, we understand where we’re at physically.
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“We’ve come back in good shape, but we need to get fitter. I think, on behalf of us last year, we know we need to do more: we need to be fitter, we need to be physically better and we need to be mentally better.
“So this is a perfect tour for us to enable that and to improve on our fitness and our style of play.”