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The Manchester United faithful may have been disappointed not to have been able to watch their club over the past two weekends but one man who may not have minded is Erik ten Hag. The

Dutchman has hardly had time to breathe since arriving at Carrington. Within a fortnight of his first training session with his players, he was jetting off with the squad on their pre-season

tour of Australia and Thailand. The longest gap he had between games during the summer was seven days and even after that he had two friendlies within two days in two different countries.

After an encouraging pre-season, dismal defeats to Brighton and Brentford followed to mark a desperate start to his tenure. READ MORE: FOUR MOMENTS SPOTTED IN UNITED TRAINING But then Ten

Hag showed what he can do when he has time on his hands. Nine days after United hit crisis point against Brentford, the Dutchman masterminded a 2-1 win over Liverpool. That denoted the start

of a four-game winning league run, which included a 3-1 win over Arsenal and still stands today. United, like all top six teams, were facing a packed schedule ahead of the World Cup break.

But their postponed Premier League games amid the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has opened a rare and unexpected opportunity for Ten Hag. He has been able to spend time with his

players on the training pitch and fine-tune his philosophies ahead of the Manchester derby. The trip to City on October 2 begins a tough period in which Everton, Newcastle, Tottenham and

Chelsea await with Europa League ties against Omonia peppered in between. A result against the noisy neighbours would be a landmark triumph for Ten Hag - he will have had 17 match-free days

to perfect his plan. The task before him is great and he will be without most of his squad during the international break. But Ten Hag has been gifted a precious period of time before a

hectic few weeks that may define his probation period as United boss. READ NEXT: