Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag has praised the importance of Benni McCarthy, who is a first-team coach at Manchester United, having joined the club in the summer.
In an interview with the club’s official media team, ten Hag spoke about how McCarthy’s knowledge and expertise about scoring goals is important for the makeup of his coaching staff.
Given that during his playing days, the United manager was a defender, he would not know what it is like to score regularly, so he needed someone who’s skillset was that, and it looks like he has found the perfect man in the former South African striker as the Dutchman spoke highly of his influence on his coaching staff.
Ten Hag repeatedly speaks about “togetherness” in his interviews with the media, and he says that the former Blackburn man has played a key part in developing that amongst the playing squad, thanks to his connection with the players.
“In our coaching staff, we had a lot of defenders and midfield players,” said Ten Hag. “I wanted also to find a good balance. He is offensive [minded] as he is a former striker and that is also a really specific job task in the team.
“I never played there, so I’m lucky to have someone in my staff who played there. Football is about scoring and you have a goalkeeping specialist, but you also have offensive specialists and, in particular, we have a specific scoring trainer.
“He has to add that, in details, working and for the rest of us, he has a relationship to all the players in our squad. He also has to work on the togetherness and he is doing a great job on that” [via Man Utd].
United are in Premier League action tonight away to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in what is an important game as they look to consolidate their place in the top four. The game gets underway at 8pm UK time, and for those in the UK, the game will be shown on Sky Sports.