Erik ten Hag couldn't have wished for a better first game as Manchester United manager.

The new Red Devils manager saw his new side pummel Liverpool 4-0 to win the Bangkok Centenary Cup courtesy of goals from Jadon Sancho, Fred, Anthony Martial and Facundo Pellistri.

While, yes, you can insert the relevant caveats about it just being a silly old pre-season friendly and that's very much true, but you can't exactly criticise United for what was undoubtedly a solid performance either.

Man Utd 4-0 Liverpool

And perhaps the most promising aspect of the game regardless of whether they won or lost 4-0 was the fact that there were flashes, glimmers, of what United might look like with Ten Hag in the hot seat.

Ever since the Ralf Rangnick experiment crashed and burned midway through the third act of the 2021/22 season, the Old Trafford faithful have been daydreaming about what a new era at the club might look like.

And with Ten Hag carrying around an air of mysticism as a partly-unknown quantity amongst Premier League fans, there has been great intrigue to see what his footballing philosophy will actually look like in practice.

A fascinating combination betwixt the high-pressing style of Jurgen Klopp and possession-based domination of Pep Guardiola, there were subtle signs of 'Ten Hag ball' during the 4-0 triumph in Thailand.

Soccer Football - Pre-Season Friendly - Manchester United Training - Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand - July 11, 2022 Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag and assistant Steve McClaren during training REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Tactical analysis of Ten Hag's first game

However, now that the dust has settled on United's pre-season opener, we can zoom out from the odd clip on Twitter and take a more comprehensive look at the performance thanks to the boffins over at Tifo IRL.

One of the most revered in-depth analyst teams in football media and rightfully so, they decided to dig deeper into United's victory and push out a video on: "What we learned from ten Hag's first match."

And while they are obviously keen to reiterate that it's ultimately just a friendly that means nothing in the wider context of the year, it's nevertheless fascinating to hear some of their insightful takeaways.

As such, be sure to support their brilliant content by giving the video a full watch and keep scrolling to see our round-up of some of the key points that they extrapolated from Ten Hag's United bow.

1. Relentless movement off the ball

Set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, United fans were buoyed to the see the fluency and aggression so often associated with Ten Hag's football at Ajax coming through what felt like a revitalised and energetic display.

Marcus Rashford and Sancho were often coming in tight to Martial, but also swapping wings every now and again - a contributing factor to the first goal - in one of the clearest demonstrations yet of a more flexible United.

The left-winger would also allow Luke Shaw to overlap, calling upon his superior identification of forward runs compared to Alex Telles to either create space for themselves in deeper, wider positions or on the underlap.

Soccer Football - Pre Season Friendly - Manchester United v Liverpool - Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand - July 12, 2022 Liverpool's Harvey Elliott in action with Manchester Unite's Luke Shaw REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

2. The power of simplicity

And this constant off-the-ball movement led to some deadly moves that were both incredibly basic and incredibly effective, such as Diogo Dalot's overlap just before Bruno Fernandes forced the opening goal.

As Tifo so eloquently explain, you don't necessarily need to receive the ball in the end for your run to be a good one and the activity of Dalot brilliantly allowed Fernandes the extra space and time to deliver a great pass.

This impetus on overlapping full-backs, underlapping forwards and three-person runs make for exactly the sort of attacking dynamism that was so desperately lacking under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Rangnick.

Soccer Football - Pre Season Friendly - Manchester United v Liverpool - Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand - July 12, 2022 Manchester Unite's Diogo Dalot in action with Liverpool's Luis Diaz REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

3. Centre-backs going out wide

The hyper-aggression that coursed through this new-look United was also apparent in the way that centre-backs like Victor Lindelof and Raphael Varane would maraud so far out wide that they were practically full-backs.

Either Fred or Scott McTominay would then drop back into the central position with the idea being that the full-backs can stay higher up the pitch and in turn, the attacking players can remain pinned on the opposition defence.

It's a high-risk strategy that's only ever one bad pass away from the rival striker going one-on-one with David de Gea, but it does set United up for quick overloads and swift combinations as soon as they regain possession.

Soccer Football - Pre Season Friendly - Manchester United v Liverpool - Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand - July 12, 2022 Manchester United's Raphael Varane before the match REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

So, there you have it, just a few interesting observations from Ten Hag's first game as United boss that - although completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things - gives fans a tantalising teaser of what's still to come.