Erik ten Hag sets Manchester United players a 'massive challenge'

Erik ten Hag has set the lofty goal of making Manchester United 'the best transition team' in the world.'

After a couple of weeks of players returning for pre-season training in stages following international commitments, Ten Hag finally has his whole squad together as they have travelled to America for a pre-season tour. United will face fierce rivals Arsenal in New Jersey tonight and have fixtures with Wrexham, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund to come.

It's the manager's second pre-season in charge and he is aiming to further implement his ideas on the squad after a positive debut campaign which saw the end of the trophy drought and a return to Champions League football. The campaign wasn't without its growing pains though as Ten Hag's ideas took time to take.

Simply, a transition is the moment possession goes from one team to another and these moments can be taken advantage of by the side winning the ball as the team losing it can be left exposed to a quick counterattack. This has led to the increase in intense pressing to try and create as many transitions high up the pitch as possible and has been done to great effect by Manchester City and Liverpool in recent years.

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Despite that stiff competition, Ten Hag wants his team to master playing the transitions. When asked by United's official site what messages he's sending his players this summer, he replied: "That we want to do it in the United way. What is the United Way? So what is our identity? And we want to be really successful in that particular style.

“We really looked into the history of Manchester United and we really looked also into the qualities of our players. And then you can say, so