Erik ten Hag was quick to praise away support that Manchester United fans provided at Selhurst Park despite their disappointing 4-0 loss to Crystal Palace on Monday night.
Despite having several players missing due to injury, the Red Devils were comprehensively beaten on a terrible outing in south London, but yet the fans still did not keep their voices low and kept supporting the team all the way through.
Ten hag was grateful and expressed his feelings, even if he acknowledged the players’ performance was “by far not good enough.”
Ten Hag hails quality away fans support
“It is clear and it is obvious, this is underperforming. We didn’t act how we want to do it and it’s by far not good enough. We are very disappointed, but the fans were always behind us and we keep fighting, like the fans did. I was really grateful [to the fans]. They back us. They see also we have our problems. You have to stick together. You have to take responsibility. The fans gave us such huge and tremendous support.”
“As Manchester United, we should perform better. The players who were available should do better. It’s a deserved defeat. The performance wasn’t what we expected. There are always reasons [why we are not good enough]. Everyone can see our backline, there we have huge problems but, at the end of the day, we have to deal with it. We should have done better than we did.”
The coach also mentioned Evans and expressed his respect for the veteran defender.
“Huge respect for Jonny that he stepped in [for Harry Maguire], but he wasn’t ready to go into the game. He only had two days’ training, so that is one example. But he played for 90 minutes and it was a real reward that he did this. But of course he can’t play to the levels what he can normally do.”
Speaking on the ongoing issues that Manchester United have had to endure this season, he added: “All season, we have huge problems and by now, this is the fourth defeat in this calendar year, so that’s not a lot and every time, we had huge problems and many times, we sort it out. Today, we didn’t.”
“I don’t think about this [my future]. I prepare the team in the best way I can. We have many problems. The only focus I have is to perform better with my team. I think only about making my team better.”
