Ten Hag punishes United flops with extra training

ERIK TEN HAG hauled his Manchester United flops in for extra training yesterday in the wake of their horror show 4-0 defeat at Brentford. After calling the performance ‘rubbish’, the furious United boss cancelled a planned day off and ordered the players to report to the club’s Carrington training base.

Ten Hag punished his team for running a total of eight-and-ahalf miles less than Brentford by making them cover the same distance yesterday in temperatures of more than 30 degrees.

Sportsmail understands that concerns among United’s coaching staff over the effort put in by some players in training last week were justified by their pathetic performance at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Although Cristiano Ronaldo is said to be training well, he exchanged words with Ten Hag’s No 2 Steve McClaren at the final whistle after refusing to applaud United’s travelling fans, and there is a feeling that his mood is having a negative effect on the dressing room. The thrashing at Brentford followed an embarrassing 2-1 defeat by Brighton at Old Trafford on the opening day.

Ten Hag is the first United manager in over a century to lose his first two games. United sank to the bottom of the Premier League table. Worryingly, the next fixture is at home against arch-rivals Liverpool, who won 5-0 at

Old Trafford in October. Ten Hag acknowledged after Saturday’s defeat that United desperately need to strengthen, saying: ‘We need new players. We need quality players. We are working on that and we’ll do everything to convince them to come.’