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Veteran keeper Tom Heaton has made comments of working under new goalkeeping coach, Jelle ten Rouwelaar.
With so much change at United this season, those remaining at Old Trafford are getting used to new game plans, tactics and coaching styles.
Off the pitch, United has seen the hiring of Jason Wilcox, Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth, whilst closer to the players on the pitch, Rene Hake and Ruud van Nistelrooy have joined the coaching staff as assistant managers.
Alongside the Dutch duo, Andreas Georgson and Jelle ten Rouwelaar have been hired to Erik ten Hag’s coaching team as set-piece coach and goalkeeping coach respectively.
Ten Rouwelaar has recently been promoted to head goalkeeping coach with seasoned coach Richard Hartis leaving the Premier League club.
Now, with the pre-season underway, the Red Devils are now experiencing their first few sessions with the new coaches.
Heaton shares thoughts on Jelle ten Rouwelaar
Since returning to Carrington for the pre-season, United’s third choice keeper, Tom Heaton, has been working under ten Rouwelaar.
Both men are now in the United States as part of the Red Devils’ USA tour, with ten Hag’s side taking on Arsenal on Sunday.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Heaton said: “I’ve really enjoyed the sessions. They are different.”
He continued: “He works more on cognitive basic calls, where it’s making you think quite a bit. So on my first warm-up day, he and I went out for half an hour and it was a lot of opposites.
“So there’d be a blue cone, a yellow cone, and it was a case of doing the opposite — if he shouts blue you have to go to yellow.
“Then he passed me the ball and if he said right, it’d be left, and then the progression would be left, left, but the first one wouldn’t be an opposite and the second one would be an opposite.
“I was like; ‘What?’ But it’s good. It does make you think so you’re not just going through the motions.
“I think you can see that games are changing a little bit. It’s less off the cuff now. Teams are very structured in terms of what they do in their press, whether they press with one man, two, three.
“So you’ve got to work it out, you’ve got to count their numbers. You’ve got to count the numbers in your back line and ask; ‘Are we going big, are we going short, where are they coming from, who’s looking to jump?’.
“So I think the training is based around being more perceptive of what’s in front of you.”
Heaton’s praise of ten Rouwelaar’s techniques clearly shows the change that is already being felt at the club which will hopefully show improvements on the pitch.
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