Erik Ten Hag Appoints New First Team Coach at Manchester United

Erik ten Hag has now made his third coaching appointment.

The Dutchman, while negotiating his contract with John Murtough and Richard Arnold, made it intrinsic for his management team at Manchester United to include Mitchell van der Gaag and Steve McClaren.

Van der Gaag and McClaren, both of whom have worked closely with ten Hag across the last two decades, have already been gaining plaudits for their impact on the training ground.

Ten Hag had van der Gaag as his assistant at Ajax, whilst ten Hag was McClaren’s assistant manager during the Englishman’s successful first spell at Eredivisie side FC Twente.

Eric Ramsay has been maintained as a first team coach. Ramsay was appointed to conduct set-piece specialist coaching under Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s reign.

Darren Fletcher is also to continue his work as technical director, overseeing young players’ transition into the first team training set-up.

United confirmed today that Benni McCarthy has been appointed as a first team coach.

The South African, who enjoyed prolific spells for Ajax, Porto, and Blackburn, will be performing specialist coaching having recently managed two top division clubs in his home country.

United announced that, ‘the ex-forward will specialise in coaching attacking plays and positioning.’

McCarthy thus becomes ten Hag’s fourth signing who has Eredivisie connections.

Notably, however, is that McCarthy is a United fan "I support Man United and always wanted to play for them," he once said.

‘I loved players like Mark Hughes, Andy Cole and Ryan Giggs.’

McCarthy famously scored twice to knock United out of the Champions League in 2004, which he went on to win with Porto under former United manager José Mourinho’s stewardship.

‘So I was heartbroken to score twice. My dream was to score once at Old Trafford, not to knock United out of the Champions League.’

‘I got hammered after the game by Jose Mourinho because I wasn’t very happy. He told me that if I didn’t cheer up then I’d never play in his team again.”

Andy Mitten of The Athletic mentioned McCarthy’s high coaching pedigree in South Africa,

‘He was named 2020-21 South African Premier League Coach of the Year and in May of 2021 was offered — and turned down — the job as head coach of the South African senior national team.’

Similar to van der Gaag, McCarthy is a polyglot with four languages available in his communicative cannon. 

Prior to Sunday's match against Rayo Vallecano, McCarthy spoke to MUTV pitch-side, 

'I am delighted to be here and I hope to make a real difference to United this season. To be here is a privilege.'

As for how McCarthy winded up in this esteemed role as one of ten Hag's first team coaches, according to South African news outlet City Press, 

'McCarthy’s long-time business manager submitted his client’s CV in May and Ten Hag made contact this month for an interview.'