Erik ten Hag has just been given exactly what he wanted at Manchester United

The Manchester United faithful may have been disappointed not to have been able to watch their club over the past two weekends but one man who may not have minded is Erik ten Hag.

The Dutchman has hardly had time to breathe since arriving at Carrington. Within a fortnight of his first training session with his players, he was jetting off with the squad on their pre-season tour of Australia and Thailand.

The longest gap he had between games during the summer was seven days and even after that he had two friendlies within two days in two different countries. After an encouraging pre-season, dismal defeats to Brighton and Brentford followed to mark a desperate start to his tenure.

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But then Ten Hag showed what he can do when he has time on his hands. Nine days after United hit crisis point against Brentford, the Dutchman masterminded a 2-1 win over Liverpool.

That denoted the start of a four-game winning league run, which included a 3-1 win over Arsenal and still stands today. United, like all top six teams, were facing a packed schedule ahead of the World Cup break.

But their postponed Premier League games amid the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has opened a rare and unexpected opportunity for Ten Hag. He has been able to spend time with his players on the training pitch and fine-tune his philosophies ahead of the Manchester derby.

The trip to City on October 2 begins a tough period in which Everton, Newcastle, Tottenham and Chelsea await with Europa League ties against Omonia peppered in between. A result against the noisy neighbours would be a landmark triumph for Ten Hag - he will have had 17 match-free days to perfect his plan.

The task before him is great and