Man United exited the Champions League on Tuesday night limply with a whimper after being beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich at Old Trafford, an outcome that somehow their Dutch boss found perfectly acceptable under the circumstances while being admitedly happy with his team’s performance.
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has taken Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag to task for ‘clutching at straws’ after the latter actually saw it fit to laud his team for their performance in Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at Old Trafford.
United were dumped out of the Champions League following Kingsley Coman’s second half winner for the German juggernauts, with the Reds finishing up bottom of Group A, eliminating them from further participation in either the Champions League or the Europa League post-Christmas.
The Reds were under pressure to beat Bayern with the additional hope that the other Group A clash between FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray ended all square for them to stay in the Champions League. However things didn’t go as hoped and Copenhagen won 1-0 to clinch second, meaning Galatasaray finished third and will now move into the Europa League instead of United.
Despite Ten Hag having rightly acknowledged that United had lost their place in the Champions League because of results earlier in the campaign, he still praised his side’s performance on Tuesday evening, although they had only managed to register just one shot on target in a must-win game.
Captalizing on the Dutchman’s admission, Carragher immediately raised concerns about the way standards have been allowed to deteriorate so alarmingly at Old Trafford even to the ridiculous extent of suggesting that a 1-0 defeat to one of Europe’s biggest clubs was acceptable because it was an upgrade on Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth.
Asked if the bar is too low, Carragher, appearing on CBS Sports, said: “Yes. I think what happens is, because it has been so poor for Manchester United this season, you are playing one of the top teams in Europe and you are missing injured players, so I think it is almost a case of because you haven’t been beaten three or four nil, 1-0 actually feels okay.
“They were in the game for about an hour, and there was about 60 or 70 minutes on the clock when Munich scored. He [Ten Hag] was probably watching the game thinking, ‘We’re still in this game’ and it is almost like a slight feel-good factor.
“But I think because they lost 3-0 to Bournemouth at the weekend, then playing one of the giants of European football and only losing 1-0, he is trying to take something from it to get to Sunday [vs Liverpool], because I am sure that will be the message tomorrow [Wednesday] when he sees the players.
“‘That wasn’t all bad, you were playing one of the top teams in Europe, it was 1-0, anything could have happened. Right, we have got to go to Anfield now and try and produce some sort of performance’.
“A result looks really tough on paper, but I just think that is a manager trying to clutch at straws.”