Erik ten Hag is critical of his team after the defeat against Arsenal. The Manchester United coach believes his players made unacceptable mistakes and instructs them to learn from them. He repeats that message in interviews with BBC, Sky Sports and Viaplay.
“It was a fantastic game with a high tempo,” Ten Hag said at the BBC. “The audience is the big winner tonight. Of course you are disappointed if you lose a match in the final phase. All the goals conceded today came from mistakes, that should not happen. All three goals could have been prevented.” The coach agreed that Arsenal are strong on the ball, but his team is normally solid defensively, “There weren’t many open opportunities. We made mistakes that we shouldn’t make.”
“This match was decided on small details, but also by the decisions that were made. That is difficult to digest and we have to learn from that,” says Ten Hag. “I want to win. This is not good enough. We want to be number one, but we can’t if we make mistakes. That is clear and I told them so.” At Viaplay, Ten Hag said that it should not happen at the top level that his team still conceded the late 3-2. He added, “those first two goals are also avoidable.”
Ten Hag admits United is not a top team
“The first two start from a corner,” the Dutchman continued. “Then we make mistakes and ignore basic rules. Then they come to opportunities, which they finish. How we defend that is not good. Arsenal is just a very good team, we saw that today. We were on the same level, we could go with them, we could hurt them. Then it should not become 1-1 so quickly. I am extremely annoyed with the way this is done. The players must also realize that.”
Ten Hag concluded that he does not currently have a ‘top team’ under his wing, “that’s what we’re becoming. That’s where we’re headed. So you should take this with you. It’s no wonder you’re having a hard time. They didn’t play this week, we did. When you are so close to a point in a difficult away game, you have to win it. Even if you do it on the eyebrows, you get that point. We didn’t do that and that’s a bad thing.”
