Manager Erik ten Hag is focusing on the club’s upcoming game against Nottingham Forest rather than being distracted by the club’s new set-up, less than a week after British millionaire Jim Ratcliffe became a minority stakeholder.

The Dutchman has yet to talk with anyone from Ratcliffe’s INEOS group since he has been extremely busy during the Christmas break, during which United defeated Aston Villa 3-2 on Tuesday and will face Forest away on Saturday.

“I’m excited. They want to work with me, I want to work with them, we’ll have the chats, we’ll have the meetings,” Ten Hag said during a press conference, alluding to the INEOS company, which will take over control of the club’s soccer activities.

“I’m still focused on the game, so I said no (to talks).” I don’t want any distractions right now. There will be time for us in the following days and weeks, and then I’ll know more.”It’s a pretty good thing, in my opinion. We are extremely excited to collaborate. INEOS wants to collaborate with me in this structure, and I want to collaborate with them.”

The manager is also awaiting the recovery of injured players, but not for the trip to Forest.

“It will be a similar squad as we had against Villa,” Ten Hag told reporters.

“We expect many players to return in mid-January.” Mason (Mount), Casemiro, (Lisandro) Martinez, (Tyrell) Malacia, and, of course, Harry Maguire.”

United are eighth in the rankings at the halfway point of the season, 11 points behind leaders Liverpool.

Despite their injury concerns, United came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat high-flying Villa, which Ten Hag finds very encouraging.

“We proved, despite all the setbacks, I think not any team can deal with so many setbacks as we had,” stated the club’s boss.

“We’re not happy with the number of points, but you have to be happy.” The squad is strong when all of the players return. We went head-to-head with Liverpool, Arsenal, and Villa, the top three teams in the league… we can defeat anyone.”

United face a Forest side that came off a 3-1 win at Newcastle United on Tuesday in new manager Nuno Espirito Santo’s second game in charge.

“You can see the reaction with them when a new boss comes in. “You see the spirit; we must be prepared,” Ten Hag stated.

Forest is 16th with 17 points.