Erik ten Hag’s shock decision could come back to haunt Bayern Munich against Manchester United

Erik ten Hag will be in familiar territory when he leads out his Manchester United side at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night.

The Reds boss spent two years in charge of Bayern Munich’s second side when a certain Pep Guardiola was in the first team dugout. Ten Hag jumped at the chance to join the Bavarian giants despite having just guided Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles into the top tier in his debut managerial season. The presence of Pep was a major factor.

Indeed, he earned the moniker ‘Mini Pep’ while in Germany and his two years were a success as his side finished first and second in the fourth tier, missing out on promotion in a play-off when they won the title. Munich was where Ten Hag really began to develop as a coach and form his methods, influenced by Guardiola and sporting director Matthias Sammer.

Ten Hag described the job as like ‘winning the lottery’ and while he and Guardiola didn’t mix regularly given the respective demands of their jobs, there was a shared passion for football and the tactical approach. While the Dutchman has become perhaps more pragmatic over the years, as seen at times at United, his Ajax side showcased plenty of the Pep attributes while the Catalan has had the advantage of three high-profile, financially superior clubs to work at.

Ten Hag’s coaching path has been different, with the groundwork done in his native Netherlands and United his first chance to test himself in the Premier League and at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Bayern was the start of that path.

“This time was extremely valuable for me,” he said in 2018. “I still remember well a lot of people in Holland shook their heads when I went from the Eredivisie to the regional league. I have never regretted the decision.

“Working at a club as big as FC Bayern with such influential personalities as Pep and Matthias Sammer was like winning the lottery. It was a great opportunity to develop as a coach and gain a lot of knowledge from working at a world-class club.”

In theory, he’s at another one now but United are falling short at the moment. They’ve lost three of their first five league games, have been plagued by off-field issues from takeovers to fallouts, and have spent big in the transfer market without seeing the benefits.

As Ten Hag leads the club into Europe’s elite club competition for the first time, he will hope to issue a reminder of his capabilities. This is, after all, a man who came within a whisker of a Champions League final in 2019.

His Mini Pep label might have been an easy one to attach, but now the Dutchman needs to prove he has what it takes to be an elite manager. A win at his old stomping ground would be a significant step.