Erik ten Hag says Manchester United players 'not good enough' in Tottenham defeat - 'Totally unnecessary'
Updated 29/09/2024 at 21:21 GMT+1
Manchester United sit in 12th place in the Premier League after their third league defeat of the season. They lost 3-0 at Old Trafford to Tottenham on Sunday afternoon, after a woeful defensive display from the opening minutes. Their job was made harder after captain Bruno Fernandes was sent off late in the first half, but they rarely looked like they would get back into the match.
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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag called his side’s defending “totally unnecessary” and said they were “not good enough” in the 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
United suffered their third Premier League defeat of the season and sit 12th in the table, and pressure is now mounting on the Dutchman.
Ten Hag won the FA Cup last season, but after being retained by new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe in the summer, he has now become the UK bookmakers' favourite to be the next Premier League manager sacked.
A win would have gone some way to shoring up his position at Old Trafford, but slack defending allowed Brennan Johnson to put the visitors ahead in the opening minutes after defender Micky van de Ven was able to sprint through United’s midfield and defence unopposed.
The problems were compounded as Bruno Fernandes was sent off late in the first half, and Tottenham added two more in the second period.
Speaking to the BBC after the match, Ten Hag appeared to criticise his players for their efforts.
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He said: "To concede a goal after two or three minutes like that, it did something to our belief. Totally unnecessary.
"To concede a goal like this, the [opposing] centre-half stepping in and passing the whole team over the right side and then the winger tapping in at the far post. Same mistake as in the midweek against Twente. It should be stopped in the first moment.
"From that moment on, we were stressed on the ball. We could not find the triangles or the switches.
"We had some good moments, but from that moment we could not get a foothold. And we can do better than that. Even after such a mistake from us, we should stay calm."
Ten Hag did mention some rare positive moments from new signing Joshua Zirkzee, and young winger Alejandro Garnacho, but he is looking for an improvement, with their next game against FC Porto in the Europa League this week.
He continued: "We had chances and our moments to get back in the game, with Joshua Zirkzee and Alejandro Garnacho when we still had 11 players and then, after the red card too, we had moments.
"We had our chances before half-time and in the second half with 10 men we had chances as well. It definitely had an impact on the game. I don't think it was a red card.
"First we have to deal with this and show resilience. This is not good enough. We have to accept this and get better. Focus on the next game and do things better than we did today."
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