The former manager of Manchester United, Erik Ten Hag, says that modern players are unable to accept criticism and his generation has “much thicker skin”.
The Dutch was released by the Red Devils in October last year after not building the FA Cup success of the previous season over Manchester City.
The successor to Ten Hag, Ruben Amorim, did not do better in Old Trafford, and United was in the lower half of the table after only 30 points from 26 Premier League games. Fortunately, the lower three – Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton – are a long way and a relegation battle is not up to date.
Cristiano Ronaldo announced in September that he did not respect the ten HAG after her collaboration, and the criticism continued in the past few weeks after Raphael Varane said that the atmosphere of the changing room was “sometimes very tense” and “complicated”.
Speak in an interview with SEG storiesThe 55-year-old, who is a media outlet associated with Ten Hag’s Management Agency, claimed that the current harvest of the players was a soft touch that cannot take a negative feedback on board.
“This generation is usually difficult to deal with criticism. Criticism really comes to them,” said Ten Hag. “The generation in which I grew up had a lot of thicker skin. They could be much more direct.
“I was addressed much more directly. If I did this with my current group of players, I would demotive them. If you do the current generation, you will find it offensive.”
Varane’s recent criticism of ten HAG included the claim that a high -ranking player always stood on the wrong side of the former Ajax manager, which indicated that he was going home to assert his authority.
“He always needed an example for a player who was alone in Manchester all the time,” said Varane. “He did this with at least one important player in the team. He was always in conflict with certain managers in the group. This is his way of managing.
“It is difficult to find the right words. It was sometimes very tense. Sometimes he tried to listen to the feedback from the players. Sometimes he made decisions without listening to the feelings of the players. So there were ups and downs . It was sometimes complicated.
“We had a robust discussion. We told each other a few truths, but then I didn’t play for almost two months. I said I didn’t agree with certain opportunities to do things about the relationship between him and the team .
“It was nothing I thought good for the team because some of the players were not satisfied at all. It was not good with regard to the relationship with the coach.”
Varane left United in the summer, before retiring, and ten HAG did not yet drive free of work, although he was associated with the latest Leeranz Borussia Dortmund. He has now proposed that he will not take any other job before July 1 if one is offered because he wants to start a new campaign with a clean table.