Wolverhampton Wanderers have placed Erik ten Hag on their list of managerial possibilities following the sacking of Vítor Pereira. While a return for former boss Gary O’Neil remains under consideration, The Athletic report Ten Hag is also being “considered” as a potential successor.

The 55-year-old is a free agent after Bayer Leverkusen sacked him in September. His spell in Germany lasted only long enough to oversee two Bundesliga matches before the club made the change.

Wolves have “discussed internally” the prospect of bringing Ten Hag back to the Premier League. He left Manchester United last October after nearly two and a half years in charge. During his time as United manager he won the Carabao Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup in 2024, but his tenure was overshadowed by defensive problems, inconsistent results and a well known falling out with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Statistically, Ten Hag oversaw 128 matches with the Red Devils across all competitions. He guided the team to 70 wins, 23 draws and 35 loses. Of the 85 Premier League games he managed, the Red Devils lost 27 of them.

His dismissal followed a poor start to the 2024–25 campaign when United collected just 11 points from their opening nine matches. That run came after an eighth place finish the previous season, which at the time represented the club’s worst finish in the Premier League era.

Should Ten Hag take the Wolves job he would inherit a side struggling for results, with the club on two points from their first 10 matches. Any appointment would represent a significant task, moving from a short stint in Germany back into a relegation fight in the English top flight.

The long-standing rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United has spilled into the public sphere with a forthright exchange between Virgil van Dijk and Wayne Rooney. The disagreement began after an underwhelming 3–2 defeat to Brentford, when voices inside Liverpool’s squad and external pundits criticised the champions.

Rooney, an ex-Everton academy graduate and former England captain, questioned the influence of Liverpool’s senior stars on and off the pitch. “They’ve signed new deals but I don’t think they’ve really led that team this season,” Rooney claimed. “I think body language tells you a lot, and I think we’re seeing slightly different body language from the two of them. They are the top two players in that team and if their body language is not right, that affects everyone else.

“I might be wrong on this, but if I was a Liverpool fan or the manager, that would be a big concern for me.”

Van Dijk has been publicly stung by those remarks. After watching from the stands as Liverpool lost their fifth successive domestic fixture against Crystal Palace last Wednesday, he had little opportunity to respond immediately. A win over Aston Villa on Saturday provided a platform for a fuller reply.

Having initially called for calm and pushing back against what he described as “ridiculous takes,” Van Dijk singled out Rooney by name. “I didn’t hear him last year,” the Premier League champion snapped. “No, it doesn’t hurt me to be honest. Just to come back to this particular player, obviously a legend, a big player of the game who inspired so many, I can say only positive things, but I feel that comment is just… I would say it’s a bit of a lazy criticism.

“That’s my personal opinion. It’s easy to blame the older players but he knows obviously as well as everyone else we do it together trying to help each and every one of us to try to get out of this and, like I said as well, last year when things go well you don’t hear that at all.”

Van Dijk also added: “There’s no hard feelings.”

Rooney remained firm. “My job now as a pundit is to give my opinions on what I feel,” he told his own podcast from a dimly lit trophy room. “I’m sure if you ask him or Arne Slot, he probably hasn’t been as good as he has been over the last few years. That was my comment which I stick by.”

Ruben Amorim defended his approach after Manchester United were held to a 2–2 draw at Nottingham Forest, a result that stopped the club’s run of consecutive wins. He said he feared bringing on another striker late in the game might have done more harm than good.

Amorim made attacking changes by introducing full backs Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui while leaving Mason Mount and Joshua Zirkzee among the substitutes. He replaced Diogo Dalot and Leny Yoro as he looked to create different crossing angles and movement from the flanks.

“Sometimes, if you put more strikers on, I don’t feel we are going to play better,” Amorim explained. “If you see Diogo Dalot, many times with space to make a cross but he has the right foot and is always coming inside, without space…

“With Patrick, we are going to do the same thing but, when you have the ball, got to the side and cross from the spaces there. Because, if you want to come inside, Matheus Cunha is always there to receive the ball.

“If you see the start of the second half, Leny is always the one with the space to run with the ball. Nous is a full back so I try to use the characteristics of the player. It’s not the quality because we have the quality on the bench.

“Also, if I stop the game all the time, I have the feeling I am going to break something. We were going to improve in the second half so the feeling was not to change anything.

“I know Amad can do much better, he is really dangerous one-on-one so, sometimes, we expect it just from that one guy. He was not doing a great game for us but managed to score. He has the potential to do so much better and we lost two points today.

“If [Kobbie] Mainoo and Mason Mount was there, also Josh [Zirkzee] and then you have to imagine the game. Josh is better like a little bit like Cunha, playing between the lines. If you see the game, we need a guy who needs to be inside the box. Ben [Šeško] is the best one to do that.

“Sometimes, it’s the characteristics of the game and they know that it’s just the moment. We try to do our best, it’s nothing to do with the quality on the bench. We have a lot of games where that happens.”

Amad Diallo’s late volley salvaged a point but the young winger was subdued after the final whistle, focusing on the draw rather than the quality of the finish.

“I don’t know if it is Goal of the Season,” he said. “We are really disappointed to go home with one point.

“It’s always difficult to play Nottingham Forest. We wanted to win this game coming from three in a row. We are a bit disappointed because we go home with one point. But we will learn from this.

“I think we have confidence now. We believe in the manager and we believe in the system. We are training to do the best. Everyone is now focused. We had three wins in the row and we wanted to make it four and were unlucky.

“We are doing things step by step and we believe in the manager like he believes in us. Every game for us is like a final. We wanted to bring this team to the top level. We wanted to win this game and we are disappointed as a team.”