Johan Cruyff revisited as Barcelona face Man United in Europa League

Erik ten Hag’s answer was immediate when asked in December which player from Dutch history he would like to bring to Manchester United.

“Cruyff, of course,” he replied. And he didn’t mean Jordi, the current sporting director of Barcelona.

Manchester United’s manager admits that he still thinks a lot about Johan Cruyff, of whom he had two pictures on the wall in his office at Ajax Amsterdam.

“One as a player, Johan Cruyff, and one as a coach, Johan Cruyff,” he told Uefa this week. “He, in particular, was thinking outside the box and he brought a lot to football. Football is always about winning, but he wanted to do it in a certain way. It has to be in an adventurous way, in an entertaining way.

“That was the way he wanted to express it, how he wanted the game to be played and we really have to credit him with that, we have to value that, because football is for the people to watch. That's why I'm so happy to be a manager at the Theatre of Dreams.”

In Barcelona manager Xavi Hernández, Cruyff has a kindred spirit. Ten Hag and Xavi clash on Thursday on the unexpected stage of a Europa League play-off. Interest in the games between two of the three biggest clubs in the world is vast, with more than 100,000 waiting in an online queue for tickets for Old Trafford next Thursday.

Xavi learnt from Cruyff’s style at Camp Nou. As a player, Pep Guardiola was the finest exponent of Barca’s Cruyffism until Xavi came along. “There’s the man who will retire me,” said Guardiola upon seeing a young Xavi. Guardiola was the master of teams which dominate, the product of a system which started with the Dutch Total Football system and was enshrined by Cruyff in Spain.

It’s little surprise that Xavi likes Ten Hag’s style. “He is a great coach,”