Erik ten Hag and Bruno Fernandes have built a good relationship at Old Trafford (Picture: Getty Images)

Erik ten Hag had a nightmare start to life at Manchester United but sending his players on a gruelling training run, which he crucially joined in himself, turned things around, believes Bruno Fernandes.

The Dutchman took charge of the Red Devils over the summer and began his first Premier League season with a loss at home to Brighton and then a seriously concerning 4-0 thrashing at Brentford.

However, things have picked up impressively since then and United have lost just two of their 15 Premier League games since then, sitting fourth in the table.

Fernandes traces that recovery back to the day after that loss to Brentford in August, when Ten Hag took drastic measures to get a point across.

The Bees players had outrun United’s stars by 13.8km in that match in London and Ten Hag dragged his squad in on their planned day off to run that distance.

However, to prove that he is very much with his men, the boss joined in on the run and Fernandes says this was the moment everything changed.

‘When everyone understood what kind of run it was, it was, “Wow, why do we have to do it like this?”. And all of a sudden, you look backwards and you see your manager running with you,’ said Fernandes. ‘I don’t know exactly what the distance was but it was big.

‘When a manager does the punishment . . . because that’s what you have to call it, it was a punishment, it was supposed to be a day off. And we had to come to training and do that run . . . obviously, it makes us feel he knows he was part of that bad result.

‘He wants to make us understand that we are together on this in a good way, in a bad way. In the good moments and in the bad moments.

Fernandes has been handed the United captaincy under Ten Hag (Picture: Getty Images)

‘That shows that he’s a manager that takes the responsibility and not only puts the responsibility on the players. That was a good sign for us, to understand that the discipline would be for everyone and not only for some of the players or some of the people.

‘The change was not the day we came in to run, that was obviously a mark from the coach to the players to understand, “This is the way I want it!”. But I could see the response from everyone the day after.

‘Because we came to training and you could see how intense everyone was, how angry everyone was, how you felt everyone wanted to give a response in the next game.’

United’s recovery will be put to the test on Saturday when they face Manchester City at Old Trafford in the 12.30pm kick-off in the Premier League.

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‘I could see the response from everyone the day after.’