Manchester United fans might be surprised by how Erik ten Hag sets up team with Cristiano Ronaldo

With Erik ten Hag joining Manchester United in the summer, many fans have begun imagining what the team might look like under the Dutch manager. And of course, they are using his Ajax team as a template.

At Ajax, Ten Hag plays a 4-3-3 which allows him to dominate possession and get across his philosophy. He likes to keep the game wide and spread out the opposition's defence to create gaps for his side to attack and exploit.

And given that this Ajax side is most United fans' only example of Ten Hag's work, they wouldn't be blamed for thinking that he would continue this formation and style of play when he moves to Old Trafford. However, this might not be the case.

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When he started at Ajax, Ten Hag instead chose to implement a 4-2-3-1 formation, moving away from the Dutch club's classic 4-3-3 which had been a staple at the club since the time of Johan Cruyff. And in an interview with Dutch Soccer Site in 2019, Ten Hag spoke about why he made a change.

Ten Hag said: "I wasn’t the first to do this. I do remember that Adriaanse got a lot of flak when he started fiddling with the house style, but the qualities of the players determine the system, not the other way around. And it’s not even about systems. It’s about what you do in possession when you lose possession and in those turnaround moments. And you need to be able to change that up.”

So it could be the case that when he joins United, Ten Hag makes a change to accommodate the players that he has. Many questions have been raised about how Cristiano Ronaldo would fit into the side.

Ronaldo has been United's best player this season; granted everyone else has been severely out