Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag has adapted a special approach in his assessments of Manchester United's youngsters as well as integrating them into the first team.
In a general approach, Erik Ten Hag has claimed he loves sticking with the same crop of players as this helps players find rhythm, understand, and compliment each other while it helps the team gather momentum. He first stressed this during this campaign, when he had to rotate Wan Bissaka and Diogo Dalot at the right back position.
It was also evident in how he wasn't quick to introduce Casemiro into Manchester United's midfield after the Brazilian arrived from Real Madrid. It took Erik Ten Hag four games before he gave the 31-year-old his first start, despite the Red Devils struggling due to the absence of a player of Casemiro's caliber in the middle.
It's also an approach he is currently adapting toward the assessment of the younger players at Old Trafford. already given full control over Manchester United's youth team in a bid to utilize talents and develop prospects from the team's academy. Erik Ten Hag, however, is ensuring that young players are totally ready before finally giving them their first start in the senior team, no matter how frustrating it is for the said player.
An instance from his former club, FC Ajax, was how he assessed and filtered the talents in the club's academy prospects, such as Donny Van De Beek, Frenkie De Jong, and Matthijs De Ligt. These three were the poster boys of Ajax's successful 2018-19 campaign, claiming the Eredivisie title, the Dutch Cup, and reaching the UEFA Champions League semifinals, beating Juventus and Real Madrid along the way.
However, before they became undroppables under Erik Ten Hag, they were always in and out of the team, or maybe they were slowly getting integrated into the team by the Dutch tactician.
Bayern Munich's Ryan Gravenberch also went through the said process while he was on loan at Ajax. The midfielder's qualities were to be assessed by Erik Ten Hag before he became an outright first-team player.
It's safe to say that Manchester United's youngsters are experiencing these processes with the manager. Alejandro Garnacho has already passed certain stages of his own examinations, while Facundo Pellistri and Kobbie Mainoo are still in the opening stages.
At 18, Alejandro Gernacho has already earned Erik Ten Hag's trust and shown the threat he could offer on the pitch while playing under the former Ajax boss. It can be concluded that Kobbie Mainoo and Facundo Pellistri are still in the assessment stage.
Although fans are already thirsty for more game time for the Uruguayan winger following his displays after making cameos this season, Erik Ten Hag seems to be starving the youngster with opportunities, which will make him hungry and aggressively pounce on any little opportunity he gets.
However, Zidane Iqbal is not getting much attention from Erik Ten Hag since his arrival as manager. The 20-year-old has trained several times with the first team this campaign but hasn't appeared in a single game. Even when fans anticipated his cameo in the Carabao Cup, it was 17-year-old Kobbie Mainoo that got his debut.
Erik Ten Hag has outright stated that in his principle he doesn't just give out playing time for free and has continuously shown players who make the team work really hard for it, but Zidane Iqbal is one of the bright prospects recently produced by the club's academy.
Clearly, Erik Ten Hag has plans for the future of the team and is also ensuring short-term goals are met. As for the development of young prospects emerging from the club, fans can fully trust the disciplinarian to get the job done. It's not because he did it while at Ajax but because he is already making progress with Alejandro Gernacho.
However, Erik Ten Hag is making his mark on the team, but it calls for patience and discipline to get the talents out of Manchester United's prospects.
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