What Pep Guardiola's Man City rebuild tells Manchester United about Erik ten Hag task

On Thursday, Manchester United announced that Erik ten Hag will become their new manager in the summer, joining the Old Trafford club on a three-year deal.

The Dutch coach has been in charge at Ajax since 2017, where he has earned widespread acclaim for building two successful sides characterised by attractive, attacking football and talented youngsters. In replacing interim manager Ralf Rangnick, Ten Hag will become the sixth manager United have hired since Sir Alex Ferguson retired nine years ago.

United's decline over the past decade has made for pleasant viewing over on the blue side of the city, but Manchester City fans might now feel that finally, finally, their neighbours have managed to hire a coach who will return United to where they think they belong.

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However, it's not going to be easy. As reserve team manager at Bayern Munich from 2013 to 2015, Ten Hag worked fairly closely with Pep Guardiola. His style of football is largely built on that of the Catalan boss, so City fans are fairly well placed to let their cross-town rivals know what to expect.

An identifiable style

Since Ferguson retired in 2013 United have not had a style of football to really call their own, aside from the mythical 'United DNA' — whatever that is. Ten Hag will bring an identifiable style of football to the club, one that is not dissimilar to Guardiola's City. The Dutchman learned an awful lot from Guardiola at Bayern, so much so that he integrated several key aspects of Cruyffian football into his own playing philosophy.

Like Guardiola, Ten Hag likes his team to defend from the front and press, build attacks from the back, keep a high