Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been praised for his work with younger players.

The Dutch coach has come in for a lot of criticism from fans and the media in general.

While his future is in doubt, United's academy director Nick Cox lavished praise on him this week.

Cox told The Mail: "I don't know for sure, but I would suggest he was appointed because of his track record or one of the reasons he was the lead candidate would be because he had a track record of developing players and

“I think any Manchester United manager has to know how to win but has to know how to stick to our values of integrating youth into a winning first team.

"The bit that people don't see is the amount of boys that actually work with him on a daily basis to support training, not necessarily the group that we've been talking about here at the 18s, but the 21s have a really close connection and boys that will support the team to prepare on a weekly basis.

"That's invaluable in terms of our young players' learning and education, to have the opportunity to go and train some of the best players in the world, some of the most successful players in the world only brings about and accelerates their development even further. That's a great ingredient that money can't buy."