Manchester United hope to win their first trophy in almost six years when they meet Newcastle in the Carabao Cup Cup final at Wembley.
Had they not lost their opening two Premier League games against Brighton and Brentford, United would now be regarded as genuine title contenders.
They remain in the FA Cup and have now emerged triumphant from a pulsating two-legged Europa League tussle with European heavyweights Barcelona in what Ten Hag described as his ‘biggest win’ since arriving at the club in May.
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United won 38 trophies during Alex Ferguson’s 26-year reign at Old Trafford, including 13 league titles, two Champions Leagues, five FA Cups and four League Cups.
But the start of Erik ten Hag’s reign has restored hope to the Old Trafford faithful.
The Dutchman has done an impressive job since arriving from Ajax as manager in the summer, the sixth man to try to recreate at least some of the success Ferguson enjoyed before he stood down in 2013.
It goes against the general narrative of their respective time at United to offer former executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and director of football negotiations Matt Judge at least some credit for their old club’s present position.
Woodward and Judge helped set out the template that was expanded by chief executive Richard Arnold, director of football John Murtough and technical director Darren Fletcher which ultimately led to Ten Hag being identified as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s permanent successor.
Did he have the strength of character and personality to deal with all that being Manchester United manager entails?
Immediately after Ajax’s final game on 15 May, Ten Hag flew to London, where he spent a week meeting more staff, purposely staying away from United’s Carrington training base, before attending the final Premier League match at Crystal Palace.
By the time he left for his family holiday in Ibiza, every minute of every pre-season training session had been planned.
During the pre-season trip to Australia, young forward Alejandro Garnacho was late for a meeting.
Ten Hag’s decision to drop Marcus Rashford for the trip to Wolves on New Year’s Eve for “disciplinary reasons”, made bigger headlines.
“It just shows what the manager is like by dropping one of our best players.
Ten Hag first rebuked the Portuguese superstar for leaving Old Trafford straight after he had been substituted at half-time during a pre-season appearance against Rayo Vallecano.
When Ronaldo refused to come on as a late substitute during the home game against Tottenham on 19 October and stormed out of the stadium in disgust, Ten Hag responded by axing him from his squad to play Chelsea the following weekend.
There have been times in the past where United sided with players in personal disputes with managers.
Ten Hag has 100% freedom to deal with team issues exactly as he wishes.
Within days of Ronaldo criticising Ten Hag in his explosive interview with Piers Morgan, he was booted out of the club.
Be it the high press, controlling possession or pushing full-backs high up the pitch, Ten Hag, as you would expect from someone who learned from Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, has brought new ideas to Old Trafford.
“The manager wants us to be a possession-based team,” said Shaw.
He wants us to be a pressing team, very aggressive and, at times, very hard to play against.”
Ten Hag had been recruited to execute a long-term plan.
Win or lose against Newcastle, United feel like a club moving forward in a manner not seen since Ferguson stood down in 2013.
“From the outside if definitely looks like that but I think also from the inside, being here so long, it feels like that too,” said Shaw.
Standing at Wembley as the first United manager to win a trophy since Jose Mourinho lifted the Europa League against Ajax in 2017 would be something to celebrate.
“For the position we have been in over the past years and the feeling we have inside the dressing room, it means everything,” said Shaw.
“It has been such a long time since we have won a trophy.
“It is something we have been aiming for a long time; to get that winning feeling back, that feeling of winning trophies.”
