Manchester United coach Benni McCarthy Manchester United coach Benni McCarthy. Photo: @BudweiserSA/Twitter
Durban — Manchester United manager Eric ten Hag has commended the influence of Benni McCarthy within his squad as his side continue their upward trajectory.
The former Bafana Bafana forward was roped in by Ten Hag ahead of the 2022/23 campaign as he sought to revive the Red Devils.
United are currently on an impressive run of seven wins in a row in all competitions and have worked their up the Premier League table into fourth place, a point behind Manchester City and nine behind league-leaders Arsenal.
McCarthy was handed the role of attacking coach and while he has been lauded by many for his immediate effectiveness on players like Marcus Rashford, he has also earned the commendations of the Dutch manager.
🚨![CDATA[]]>🇳![CDATA[]]>🇱 Ten Hag on Benni McCarthy: “I never played there [striker], so I’m lucky to have someone in my staff who did. 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.” ✅ pic.twitter.com/Fezwji2WhP
— UtdPlug (@UtdPlug) January 18, 2023
“He has a really good relationship with all the players in our squad. He also has to work on togetherness and he is doing a good job in that,” said Ten Hag in an interview.
The former Ajax mentor also took the opportunity to break down the role he had expected McCarthy to play upon his appointment, mentioning that his success as an expert goalscorer during his playing days was one of the components he was looking for.
“In our coaching staff we had a lot of defenders and midfield players so I wanted to find a good balance and he's (McCarthy) offensive and a good striker so that's a really big job, task in a team,” he explained.
“I never played there (as a striker) but luckily I have someone who did in my staff. Football is about scoring; we have a specialist for goalkeeping so we also need a specialist for scoring, so he has to add that.”