Ten Hag faces a battle to retain control of Man Utd after the Rashford storm
ERIK TEN HAG faces a battle to retain control of Manchester United.
It's something Sir Alex Ferguson always had and that Ten Hag thought he had.
But another week of chaos at the club suggests otherwise.
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First Cristiano Ronaldo, then Jadon Sancho, now Marcus Rashford.
Three players who have shown a complete lack of respect for the manager.
Add in inconsistent performances that suggest whatever the plan is at Carrington, it's not working. They are 11 points behind the top four going into Thursday night's away match against Wolves.
Once again, off-field issues dominated the pre-match agenda.
Ten Hag was given the mandate to eradicate the player power that had toppled his predecessors.
Unfortunately in modern football, and at United in particular, it seems like a battle that cannot be won.
Ronaldo was a law unto himself before Ten Hag finally snapped and threw him out of the club.
Sancho essentially called him a liar in a social media post after the boss left him out of the Arsenal squad due to his poor attitude in training. Now Rasford.
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The player had already been warned this season after partying to celebrate his birthday the night after United suffered a derby thumping last October.
But the message clearly hadn't gotten through. Either that, or he thinks so little of the manager that he doesn't care.
Ten Hag denied yesterday that there was a lack of respect. He said, “It has nothing to do with that.”
So is there simply a discipline problem at United?
He said: “I have nothing to do with that. But in football you need discipline and that is on the field, but also off it.
“There is a line between, when every player, every professional knows this, what it takes.
“We have to concentrate on winning games and that is all that matters. Every top professional knows what is needed.”
People may wonder why Sancho was dropped from the squad for what he did, while Rashford was welcomed back straight away.
Ten Hag says: “We can arrange everything internally. Jadon has chosen to go public.”
Still, you could argue that if Ten Hag had not made it public why he left Sancho out, the player in turn would not have reacted the way he did.
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Amid it all, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, now in charge of football operations, looks on. There is no doubt that Ten Hag is under pressure, but you wouldn't know it.
At yesterday's press conference he was all smiles and answered all questions about Rashford.
He even suggested that the player was starting to regain the form that saw him score 30 goals last season.
The 26-year-old has scored twice and provided two assists in his last three games.
Ten Hag said: “You see the last two Premier League games, and in the game against Wigan the progress between Marcus Rashford and Rasmus Hojlund was clearly visible, especially as the team gets stronger at the back.
“That is growing and it creates a good atmosphere and atmosphere in the team.
“We are very confident and on our best days we can beat anyone.
“On our worst days we push ourselves to certain limits of what is not acceptable, so we have to push our limits to a high level and get our results on our worst days.
“Everyone in the team is very convinced of this. They know that players will come back from long-term injuries and the team will be stronger. It helps motivation and it helps the mood and spirit of the team.
“We have to treat every match as a final and every match we have to get the best out of it. This team has so much experience, they know that. I am quite positive now that we have our players back.”
The circus moves on to Molineux.