Revealed: Erik ten Hag's ridiculously long working hours at Man Utd as under-fire head coach surprises employees with early starts in bid to turn around season

• United have had poor start to 2023-24
• Ten Hag desperate to turn things around
• Security staff shocked by early starts

WHAT HAPPENED? According to The Sun, the Red Devils' hard-working boss has regularly been arriving at the club's Carrington training ground before 7am in the morning, and often staying for several hours after the players have left. “Nobody can accuse Ten Hag of a lack of effort," said one source. “Sometimes he’s there so early he’s catching the security and kitchen staff on the hop.” The report adds that although Ten Hag will sometimes go home for two hours in the afternoon, he tends to return to work until 8:30pm and is putting in as much time as possible to try and turn the club's fortunes around.

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Ten Hag spoke out about Marcus Rashford's disappointing performances following United's disastrous 4-3 loss to FC Copenhagen in midweek, and he's not the only player struggling for form. A 1-0 win over Luton hardly convinced fans that the team has what it takes to change their fortunes any time soon, though United are now up to sixth in the table, five points behind fourth-placed Tottenham.

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WHAT NEXT FOR UNITED? Ten Hag will be hoping that his ridiculously long hours will start paying off, and the international break means that he now has a couple of weeks away from the relentless schedule of the Premier League and Champions League to plot how to turn things around.