In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Erik Ten Hag’s first major trophy for Man United, Graham Potter’s future at Chelsea and Naby Keita’s links to Barcelona, plus much more…
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The impressive thing about Man United and their performance against Newcastle in the EFL Cup final on Sunday was how comfortable they were overall. Don’t get me wrong, Newcastle were really good at times, they came flying out of the blocks early on and did create a fair few chances, but Man United looked like a team with great belief and that is a testament to the job Erik Ten Hag has done.
He took over a team that looked down and out at times and although there’s no denying that Casemiro has transformed them, it wasn’t a guarantee. Players can move clubs and it doesn’t always work out but that hasn’t happened with the Brazilian at all.
Fred has also been rejuvenated under Ten Hag. He looks like a player that’s had an arm put around him by his manager and starting him on Sunday was a brave decision but it shows Ten Hag has belief in him and that kind of treatment is only going to grow a player’s confidence.
The team, on the whole, are going from strength to strength and they’ll now be looking at the Premier League table and feel like they’re in a position to effect the outcome. I think Ten Hag will be telling his team to focus on each game as they come and let all the fans and pundits talk about Arsenal and Manchester City but they’ll quite happily play the role of outsiders quietly sitting back and going about their business. We know they’ve got a big enough squad to make changes in a run-in so I expect to see them challenge, not just in the league, but also in the FA Cup and Europa League. To win the first trophy up for grabs and still be in the other three competitions come March is a great position to be in.
As for how the squad looks with a few months to go – they look humble and fit and raring to go. I think other clubs, home and abroad, will be looking at Man United with a sense of worry.
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