Erik ten Hag has identified the same Manchester United problem as the past two managers

The last time Manchester United were in Australia Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was flogging his players in an attempt to improve fitness levels he believed weren't up to scratch.

Fast forward three years and United are Down Under once again. They will head to Perth today having spent six days in Melbourne and it's been another intense pre-season on the training ground.

There have been countless double sessions and even on days when there has been just one session it has tended to last close to three hours.

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The reason for such intensive work this summer? Not just learning Erik ten Hag's style of football, but fitness. According to the Dutchman, this squad still isn't fit enough to play a modern brand of pressing football.

It was an area Solskjaer was critical of when he arrived but his style of play was passive and when Ralf Rangnick took over midway through last season he said he wanted to turn the players into "pressing monsters". He accepted pressing pussycats after a couple of games when he realised they didn't have the fitness levels to sustain that approach.

Rangnick had to compromise on his philosophy, but Ten Hag has a full pre-season to make sure he doesn't and that is partly why he called the players back for training earlier than expected, with the non-internationals back at Carrington on June 27.

They had two weeks of hard work in Manchester and in a 16-day tour of Thailand and Australia they will get just one day off. There can be no excuses this time for failing to press.

Ten Hag held a sit-down interview with the travelling English press on Monday and the subject of fitness and what a demanding pre-season this has been came up. Is it a case of