Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has unsurprisingly launched a spirited defence of his favorite person in the squad, himself, in the aftermath of his side’s third competitive defeat of the season.
After losing the Community Shield to Manchester City on penalties, and to Brighton in the Premier League last week, United were beaten 3-0 by Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Suffice it to say that it was decidedly an alarming performance from United as not only were they were dominated, but were sufficiently embarrassed, by their infinitely superior biggest rivals, but, needless to say, their manager pleaded for patience, as has been his wont and style for the better part of the last two seasons.
“It is not like I am Harry Potter, you have to acknowledge that. For three players it was their first start of the season.”” he actually had the gall to say in his own defense.
“Manuel Ugarte did not play one minute, he needs to build his fitness. Then we have to build him into the team. I am sure he will contribute to our team. It will take a couple of weeks, maybe even a month. That is the same for a lot of players.”
Once again, unsurprisingly, Ten Hag was only too keen to remind everyone that under him United had won two trophies in the previous two seasons, but added as part of his play-safe-but-play-humble strategy, “I don’t want to talk about positives today. This defeat hurts for us and our fans.”
“It is the third game of the season. I have had to explain this so many times. We have to build a new team. We will be fine but it is clear we have to improve. At the end of the season I am quite confident we will have a big chance to lift another trophy,” he offered again as his familiar repertoire of excuses just as he had resorted to on numerous occasions in the last two seasons when his frequent slip-ups were embarrassingly exposed on the pitch.
From the get-go, United were placed on the back foot as they trailed 2-0 at half-time after two goals from Colombian Luis Diaz before Mo Salah decidedly wrapped up the game with Liverpool’s third early in the second half.
“I think the first half an hour was okay,” Ten Hag actually had the cheek to say, as if no ene else had been watching the mate.
“We made a mistake in defensive organisation for the disallowed goal but we were in the game. It was equal, level, and then we had a great structure in building up but then made a big error and, with the quality of Liverpool, they took benefit of that.”
“They took their chances so well. We have to be humble. We have to give the compliments to Liverpool but, of course, we are not happy.”
“I’m very disappointed, especially when you lose 3-0 to Liverpool. The game is over and we have to live with the result. We have to continue, bounce back and we need to improve the team. Individuals have to improve and, also fitness-wise, we have to improve. We will be fine. We are going for trophies and we have a lot to play for.”
Ten Hag’s favorite go-to Brazilian midfielder Casemiro was clearly at fault for Liverpool’s first two goals and was substituted at half-time.
“It was tactical.” Ten Hag said. “We were 2-0 down against Liverpool and the midfield will be open. You need legs and we brought in a young player who has legs in Toby Collyer. Individual errors are part of football.”
To their credit, United did create some chances in the second half, but failed to score for the first time this season.
“Marcus Rashford created two great chances for Joshua Zirkzee. It was Garnacho’s first start and Zirkzee’s first start. We know Rashy can play center-forward and one of the ideas was to bring off Zirkzee and Garnacho and leaving Rashford on.”
“He created two very good chances. I know if he keeps working, keeps fighting like he is now, it will come and he will score goals. United do not have another fixture now for two weeks as European football enters an international break.
“We can’t work with the team in the international break but we know where we want to go. We have to keep working on our structures, work on the fitness because some of our players hopefully play some games in the UEFA Nations League in the coming weeks. Also, I hope they stay fit.”
“I think the team showed resilience and kept fighting for each other. They stuck together and were still executing the plan. They dealt with the mistakes they made and I think that is also a platform to continue on with the season.”
As always the United gaffer played up the sickening ‘the team showed resilience and kept fighting for each other’ refrain as part of his now familiar version of a Manchester United football anthem.
Some things just never change despite all that the INEOS board are attempting to do to bring in change in a major revolutionary way to improve the entire structure.