Manchester United squad might be about to get the Pep Guardiola treatment from Erik ten Hag

In Ajax’s greatest season under Erik ten Hag there was a degree of consistency that comes from knowing your best team and having a squad small enough to keep everyone contented.

Ajax played 58 games in 2018/19, winning the Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup and missing out on a Champions League final in the most agonising, heartbreaking circumstances. But through all of that workload and drama, only 20 players played 10 or more games in that season. Eleven players featured in at least 46 of those matches.

Ten Hag certainly knew his best team in that season and he had built a team suited to his needs. It wasn’t needlessly big, but was slimmed down to incorporate the players he could rely on and keep motivated and it worked brilliantly.

He also had the bonus of being able to call on youngsters from Ajax’s renowned academy. Another 11 players played five or less games that season.

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So far all the excitement and drama of the transfer window and a mad trolley dash, there is actually a benefit to having a smaller squad. Ten Hag already knows that, but he only has to glance across Manchester to the Etihad for proof that can work in the Premier League as well.

Manchester City played 61 games on their way to the treble this season and 22 players played in 10 or more games. That includes back-up goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and youngsters such as Rico Lewis, Sergio Gomez and Cole Palmer. Those 22 players actually all played in at least 14 of those 61 games and Pep Guardiola used only three more players, handing Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Maximo Perrone and Shea Charles just five appearances between them.

It’s evidence of how tight this City squad is. Those 22 first-team players are ideal