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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has revealed that he instructed his players to “respond” after they suffered a “big setback” just before the interval, during their brilliant 2-1 comeback win against Brentford.
United fell behind moments before the break as Ethan Pinnock shook off Diogo Dalot to head in a corner. Pinnock’s goal came about when United were reduced to 10 men after the referee told Matthijs de Ligt to go off to get his bleeding head injury addressed.
The Red Devils came out flying in the second half and were rewarded almost instantly after Alejandro Garnacho converted a sensational cross from Marcus Rashford.
Rasmus Hojlund completed the comeback just after the hour mark, producing a superb chipped finish.
Ten Hag spoke to Sky Sports after the final whistle and gave his verdict on the match.
The United boss said, “Of course we’re happy with the performance but now also we won the game and we said before that to win the game you have to score goals.
“We made two brilliant goals after a big setback just before half-time, to concede a goal like this is very disappointing.”
When asked about the De Ligt situation, Ten Hag said, “No [nothing could have been done differently] It is just dry blood, why should he have to go off?”
But then we’re downsized with 10 men and then we concede a goal from the corner and everyone knows they’re good at corners, so we didn’t have one our best headers there and they took benefit from it.”
On what he told his players to inspire more urgency in the second period, Ten Hag said, “I said when there’s adversity, you have to respond. I saw very good character from the team, they were very determined to win this game from the first whistle to the final whistle. And after a big setback just before half-time, you see the character from the team and I would also say again, they played great football.”
“Of course we were angry, if you concede a goal like this, it’s not right. But then you have to transfer the anger into quality and that is what they did. The cross from Rashy [Rashford]..brilliant. The finish from Garnacho…brilliant. The second goal, the pass from Eriksen, the flick from Bruno and the finish from Rasmus Hojlund…so beautiful.”
He added, “We believe, you see this is a team and we fight for each other. Not only in this game but also they did in Villa, Porto…almost in every game. We had only one poor game against Spurs, where we were downsized to 10 men but afterwards, they took it back because it wasn’t a red card.”
He insisted that his players have consistently shown fighting spirit and insisted that the Red Devils can build from this.
Ten Hag warned against overrating the win against Brentford and pointed out that the standards at United demand that every match is won.
Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images
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