Erik ten Hag should restore his old rules at Manchester United

That was a surreal and succinct few seconds at Carrington on Friday when Erik ten Hag practically outlined the merits of changing manager.

"With them, you see the reaction with a new manager is coming in," he said of Nottingham Forest, "you see the spirit, we have to be ready for that... they built the confidence."

Manchester United were not ready. There were the recurring themes of conceding goals from cut-backs, the latter within minutes of United scoring. That is not confidence-building.

Forest have taken six points from nine under Nuno Espirito Santo. Their stoppage-time defeat to Bournemouth is already infamous for the worst on-pitch refereeing decision of the season, they became only the fourth Premier League side to inflict a home defeat on Newcastle under Eddie Howe and ended a 29-year wait to beat United.

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Ten Hag was in a chirpy mood in the Jimmy Murphy Centre four days ago, joking with a veteran journalist who urged him to extend the press conference to 45 minutes and cursed United's decision not to head to sunnier climes for training this month.

Whatever the strain of the first half of the season, the contours are not etched as noticeably on Ten Hag's complexion as they were on his predecessors. "I don't need a hairdryer," Ten Hag quipped during his sit-down in Melbourne 18 months ago. He could do with turning it on in the dressing room.

Ten Hag has ceased using his stock phrase the players "didn't follow the rules", which irked many squad members. The kid-glove approach was favoured by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and look where it got him. Ten Hag arrived at United as a renowned