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Erik ten Hag has insisted he is not at all worried about his Manchester United future, despite the side’s humiliating loss at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur.
United suffered a 3-0 defeat, courtesy of goals from Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke.
The result has left United in 12th position in the Premier League, with just seven points from their first six top-flight games of the season.
The Red Devils also currently have a -3 goal difference.
The manner of the loss against Spurs and especially just how poor the performance was, left a lot to be desired and as a result, pressure is once again mounting on Ten Hag as uncertainty over his position at Old Trafford looms.
After the final whistle, the Dutchman spoke to reporters and was asked about his future.
He said, “No, not thinking about this. We all made a togetherness, this decision, to stay together as an ownership, as a leadership group in the summer. And also we made the decision from a clear review, what we have to improve as an organisation and how we want to construct a squad. They are all decision-making in togetherness.”
“But we also knew it will take some time because of how the window went, some players were late in like Ugarte, we have to integrate him now. Also, we had to make some improvements in organisation, we still have to deal with some injuries, impact players. We will get better there, we need some time.”
“We are all there on one page, one boat, together, the ownership, the leadership group, the staff, the players’ group as well, so I don’t have that concern. Of course, there’s always a new game, there will be a new day and it’s also obvious you have to learn as a team.”
Spurs took the lead just three minutes in after Johnson tapped in the ball after a brilliant run from inside his own half by Micky van de Ven.
Ten Hag said about this, “It was clear, we started the game very poorly.”
“When you concede the goal like we did, in the third minute and when we actually outnumbered [Tottenham] and concede a goal from a counter attack where the centre half is crossing the whole pitch and then bring on the goal line, a cross in and then on the back post, tapping in.”
“That was our game plan. We should protect that area very good in the rest defence and the defensive transition because we knew the strength.”
“And from that point on, we are very stressful in the game and in possession we didn’t find a spare man in the switch, bad decision-making, we couldn’t keep the ball, not aggressive enough or to play around with third-man actions, so many ball losses and we didn’t get the press right.”
“The first 30 minutes was no good. But we were still alive, we had our chances with Zirkzee and Garnacho hitting the post, then you can always come back. And then the red card, we were downsized and that had a big impact on the game.”
“Can’t happen in four days now we have twice a defender of the opponent who can dribble through the whole park and not be stopped. These things [should be] impossible in top football. You can’t make such mistakes.”
United’s next assignment will see them travel to Portugal to face Porto in the Europa League on Thursday.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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