Ruud van Nistelrooy: ‘I loved the way Sir Alex asked us to play at United’
Erik ten Hag’s new assistant on what he learned from Guus Hiddink, Ferguson, Bobby Robson and Manuel Pellegrini
By The Coaches’ Voice for the Guardian Sport Network
‘Listen, you’re not going to start most of the games. You’re going to come on. It’s important now that you’re taking care of the younger players.” It was my last season as a player, at Málaga, and Manuel Pellegrini had told me I wasn’t going to be a regular starter. In the beginning, it was difficult to accept. I was a player, not a coach, and I wanted to play.
In the end, though, it made me transform my ideas and think: ‘OK, how can I help these guys?’ Off the pitch, I could give them advice on how to create a lifestyle that would benefit them as a player. On the pitch, I could help them improve – and the club at that time had lots of young attackers. Salomón Rondón was 23, Isco was 22, Juanmi only 19, Samu Castillejo – who later went to Milan – even younger.
