In blazing south California sun Ruud van Nistelrooy is leading training at UCLA’s Wallis Annenberg Stadium. Manchester United will go down 2-1 to Arsenal at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium the following day but on this heat-drenched afternoon the new assistant manager is conducting quickfire attack-v-defence sessions of less than two minutes each on a pitch of shortened, squeezed dimensions designed to enhance touch and speed of play.
Sitting in shaded bleachers observing the Dutchman are Dan Ashworth, United’s sporting director, his technical director, Jason Wilcox, and Sir Dave Brailsford, who is the executive oversight for Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the minority shareholder and Ineos owner in charge of football operations.
All witness what the Guardian has been informed: that Van Nistelrooy has an aura, is vocal, and that the plunderer of 150 goals in 219 United appearances appears as adept at coaching defenders as finishers and does not want to be considered solely a forwards guru.
In five years as a United player from his debut on 12 August 2001, when he scored in the 2-1 Charity Shield defeat by Liverpool, Van Nistelrooy menaced defences, as his end ratio of a goal every 1.46 games shows.
Now, back at the club where he won a Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup, the 48-year-old is a key part of the Ratcliffe revolution, despite being an Erik ten Hag-led recruit.
Van Nistelrooy was cool-eyed when faced with domestic and Champions League backlines – notably at Real Madrid as well as United, for whom his 35 Champions League goals remain a club record – and a similar response comes when he is asked whether, as a former PSV manager, joining Steve McClaren, René Hake and Andreas Georgson to make a quartet of former No 1s, could cause Ten Hag discomfort.
“A good thing, and no issue in my eyes,” Van Nistelrooy responds.
Tom Heaton, who is in a second United spell, signed as a trainee goalkeeper in 2002 when Van Nistelrooy was in his pomp.
He says: “Me and Ruud spent a bit of time together then – I was always his go-to keeper for shooting. He’s been brilliant, his level of detail superb. You’d be forgiven for thinking that he’s a United legend coming in so is just here [as a face]. But his level of detail, and I’ve been in a couple of meetings, is outstanding.”
In his playing days, Heaton never saw Van Nistelrooy as a future No 1. “Not really – we had that conversation a couple of days ago,” says the 38-year-old. “He sort of said he could never really see himself managing, coaching. But in his final year playing, for Málaga [in 2011-12], he was with [Manuel] Pellegrini, and he said that Pellegrini saw, not that his legs had gone but that he was sort of done before he saw it.
“So Pellegrini would say: ‘Help these lot and try and work a few drills.’ And he said he really enjoyed it. He has also been very good defensively because he understands that side of it too. So I think he’ll be big for that. I have to say, I’ve played with quite a few players and he’s my favourite ever finisher, the best I’ve ever seen. He was brilliant.”
United’s paltry 57 league goals last season and the 26 of these contributed by a strikeforce of Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Højlund, Antony, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo mean Van Nistelrooy’s finishing expertise can surely be a boon.
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Heaton believes Van Nistelrooy can transform a non-natural finisher into a predator. “I would say definitely – I’d say that’s probably a big part of what he’s here for,” he says. “If he shares his thoughts on how he did it and what he did, maybe some of his drills, I’m sure there’s some translation. Whatever he did worked.”
Jonny Evans is also in a second stint at the club and, like Heaton, the 36-year-old defender recalls Van Nistelrooy when a United player.
He says: “Having Ruud come back has been great, especially for myself. I sort of grew up idolising Ruud and the way he used to play. I got a little bit of a chance when I was a youth team player to see him. When he was coming to the end of his United career I might have trained with him once or twice when he was returning from injury. It is good to have someone of that calibre and respect in the squad.”
Evans makes a quip when asked about Van Nistelrooy being a fillip, too, for United’s defenders. “I’ll be coaching strikers when I’m older,” he says. “Ruud did mention that – after he left United he had a spell when he went to Spain and he was talking about when he was under Pellegrini and real sort of diehard defensive coaches.
“I think he learned a lot and saw real value in it. He’s probably himself quite obsessed about defensive structure, and, as a striker, I’m sure that was always quite interesting [regarding] where he could score his goals.”