Luke Shaw has conceded that previous regimes at Manchester United have been plagued by major ill-discipline, but stressed that is no longer the case under Erik ten Hag.
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United were in disarray when Ten Hag arrived in the summer but the United boss has rebounded from a poor start to steady the ship at the club.
Ten Hag has won already plenty of plaudits for his no-nonsense stance in regards to discipline, mainly in response to the Cristiano Ronaldo saga.
And Ten Hag was again applauded for adopting a similar stance with Marcus Rashford before United’s 1-0 victory over Wolves on Saturday.
The striker was dropped to the bench just days after putting Nottingham to the sword due to ‘disciplinary’ issues. The England star, who stepped off the bench to net the only goal of the match, admitted after the game that he had been punished for oversleeping for a team meeting.
When he was asked about Ten Hag’s decision after the match, Shaw made it clear that he agreed with the stance, and appeared to hint that previous United coaches would not have followed suit.
“I think at a top club it has to be like that, people can’t do whatever they want,” Shaw told BT Sport. “Maybe that’s been part of the problem in the past with people getting away with silly little things but the manager takes that into consideration. You see today, if you’re not keeping the standards high then you won’t play.”
United were plagued by reports of dressing room issues towards the end of Solskjaer’s reign and the Norwegian’s replacement, Ralf Rangnick, failed to amend the discipline problem in his unimpressive stint in charge.
And Shaw is not the first United player to hint that the discipline and culture at the club was an issue before Ten Hag joined the club in the summer.
Bruno Fernandes also discussed the impact Ten Hag has had and how the former Ajax chief has managed to instill the much-needed discipline at Old Trafford.
Speaking back in the summer, Fernandes said Ten Hag had reintroduced fines for lateness. He said: “We missed that for a while and discipline is important. Discipline is not only the way you play, the position that you have, what you have to do, it’s also off the pitch. Don’t be late for the meetings, don’t be late for the meals. That’s really important because if everyone is on time and someone comes late, he should be punished.
“That’s really good that he’s doing that and amazing, because I like to be on time, so I won’t have problems with that.”
