Man United let a two goal lead slip through their fingers on Thursday. Visiting Tottenham Hotspur, his Manchester United handed over a large lead. Afterwards, the manager was hard on his team.
Embittered Ten Hag: “Players think they can do it at 90 percent for a while”
“If you have been leading 0-2, this result is of course disappointing,” Ten Hag told the BBC. “Over 90 minutes, we were simply not good.” Manchester United left Spurs with a point, but the manager clearly was not content with it.
For a long time there seemed to be no problem for The Red Devils. The first half was dominated by Manchester United in North London. “When I think about those 45 minutes, we were great. We came here, like every game, to win. It was clear how to do that, but we refused. Like we weren’t ready,” he continued.
“Some players apparently think they can do it at ninety percent,” Ten Hag was irritated. “A draw would have been fine in advance, but if you control the game like that, you have to win it over.” Manchester United could have knocked Spurs out in a head-to-head battle for a Champions League ticket. Ten Hag was bitter that this did not work.
Ten Hag eventually saw it slip out of his hands. He concluded, “We lost our focus. I know we’re not robots, but you have to show it every week. It’s a killer schedule. Only as soon as you put on the shirt, you have to give everything for it. Every time, before every match, you have to be ready.”
Manchester United’s next game is scheduled for next weekend. Then Aston Villa comes to Old Trafford. The subtopper is in sixth place, six points behind Ten Hag’s team.
The painful stats behind Man Utd’s away fixtures
The statistics against the current Premier League top nine are particularly painful for England’s current number four.
Of all the clubs in the top nine, Man Utd has not yet met Brighton on the road in the competition, against Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Brentford, they have already played on foreign soil. The stats: zero wins, one draw and six losses. The goal difference in those duels: 8 for and 27 against.
Low points in the away games against the stronger sides of the Premier League were of course the 0-7 defeat at Anfield, the goal-rich encounter against Manchester City (3-6) and the painful slip-up visiting Brentford at the start of the season, when the became 0-4.
