Wan-Bissaka was concerned about his future at Manchester United following the arrival of Ten Hag.
Wan-Bissaka is concerned about his future at Manchester United
Aaron Wan-Bissaka has admitted that he believed his Manchester United career was ended after a brief absence following the appointment of Erik ten Hag as manager.
After Ten Hag’s arrival last summer, the defender spent three months on the bench and didn’t play a single game until the World Cup break in November.
He fought back to become United’s first-choice right-back in the second part of the season, but the 25-year-old admitted that he feared his time at Old Trafford was coming to an end.
“You have that feeling, but for me, I always have that faith in myself to get out of situations like that,” Wan-Bissaka explained. “I had my head screwed on and was prepared to do whatever it took.”
“It was a difficult time, and the only thing you could do was keep working.” I put my head down and then got the chance to aid the squad.
“You can just sit there and complain about it and not care, or you can actually try, and I thought the best way was for me to try.”
Wan-Bissaka is regarded as one of the greatest one-on-one defenders in the Premier League, but he admits that he has had to improve his attacking production in order to satisfy Ten Hag and reclaim his position in the team.
This season, he will have competition from Portugal international Diogo Dalot for the right-back position.
“All the players have to give it their all and do what he [Ten Hag] wants, that’s something I had to adapt to and it’s helped me and I’m comfortable doing it now,” Wan-Bissaka said.
“He’ll tell you when to go in, when to go up, and when to stay.” Simply being more aggressive in the future, being in the proper positions, even if you don’t get the ball, you create up a space for someone else, overlapping runs.”
Wan-Bissaka has also spoken up about his life at United and his decision to avoid social media.
The former Crystal Palace man has received his fair share of internet abuse since joining United in 2019 and has stated that he is fine with life away from the spotlight.
“When I was at Palace, I used to see players from other clubs, what they go through, what to expect, so when it happened, it’s hard to deal with it, but you just block it out and focus on the main thing, which is football,” he explained.
“It can be difficult, particularly outside of football.” You go out to eat with your family, and people come up to you, asking for pictures and autographs. I don’t believe they understand when it is OK to approach or not.
“I’m not logged in [to Twitter]. I was never on it, I made an account and just linked it to Instagram so what I posted on there went on Twitter as a post. I don’t do tweets. I can’t keep up. Twitter can be a dark place, so I avoid it.”
