Raphael Varane says Erik ten Hag has introduced confidence and self-discipline to a Manchester United aspect looking for to take the subsequent step of their improvement by beating Barcelona.
The 2018 World Cup winner joined the Old Trafford giants in the summertime of 2021 alongside Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo, however the marketing campaign that adopted was one to neglect for all related to the membership.
United sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and floundered beneath caretaker boss Ralf Rangnick as they stumbled dwelling sixth within the Premier League – a wretched state of affairs that Ten Hag has quickly rotated.
The former Ajax boss has improved the tradition and high quality at Old Trafford, which means the membership are nonetheless preventing on all 4 fronts as they put together to host Barca within the Europa League knockout play-off on Thursday.
“I think in the last month we grow a lot,” Varane mentioned. “We are playing with more confidence and tomorrow the atmosphere will be electric, so we have to manage our emotions and stay calm and believe.
“I think we improved a lot already as a team and the next step is to beat teams like Barcelona. It’s a great, great challenge for us and a great opportunity.”
Asked concerning the distinction between this season and final marketing campaign, Varane mentioned: “I feel initially it’s the boldness and secondly I feel it’s the self-discipline.
“I feel tactically we’re following precisely the principles and we all know precisely how we need to play, how we need to handle the sport.
“The quality is in the squad and I think with a little bit more experience and mentality of competition and winning mentality we already improved a lot.
“That is maybe the difference between this season and the last season.”
United’s confidence was clear final Thursday on the Nou Camp, the place Ten Hag’s males impressed in a 2-2 draw that would simply have been a victory.
“I think the first game against Barcelona was a very good game, top level – two offensive teams who want to press high on the pitch,” former Real Madrid defender Varane mentioned of the primary leg.
“The level was very good and it was a good result for us. Obviously in the first half we could maybe score more goals but in general we played with character and personality on the pitch, which was very important.
“I think for the second game we know exactly how we want to play. We want to play with passion, discipline on the pitch and belief.
“I think we have a good team and we are ready for that challenge.”