Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag his side set up properly, despite falling short woefully in a 3-0 defeat to cross-town rivals Manchester City on Sunday.
The game looked like a class of two different sides, with clearly having the upper-hand and dominating the game on all fronts. United goalkeeper Andre Onana had to make several saves to keep the scoreline respectable and it was a fixture where the hosts never really looked like winning.
Rasmus Hojlund conceded a penalty after a foul on Rodri, allowing Erling Haaland – who bragged a brace – to open the floodgates before the visitors added a late third through Phil Foden after unselfish play from Haaland again, securing three richly-deserved points.
It is now five defeats from United’s opening ten Premier League games but Ten Hag insists the penalty changed everything and his side set up perfectly against their rivals.
Ten Hag insists United had good game plan against City
“The penalty changed the game. I don’t have a comment on it. I don’t have a comment. Yes [I saw it] but no comment”, Ten Hag said.
“Especially the first half, the game-plan went perfectly. Only the penalty changed the game. The first half, we played very well. We defended very good, closing the spaces, getting into the press, keeping them away from our own goal. Only one big save by Andre [Onana], they almost didn’t create [too much]. We had opportunities, two or three great breaks, but didn’t benefit from it.”
Ten Hag further bemoaned his side’s mistakes at the back, claiming that they gave away cheap goals to City.
“The game-plan in the first half was very disciplined and then you see how successful it can be. We made an error for the second goal, we made a mistake. A wrong decision by going up to the keeper at the wrong moment. We did not recover quick and they can switch the play, our players are in the wrong positions and they make a great goal. We went out of shape and got killed by that but the first half was so perfect as we defended so well.”
“When you play against this team, everything has to be perfect. So you don’t need help but also you don’t want anything against you. Today was not our day. We have to accept that but don’t forget the game-plan was very good in the first half.”
United will now be aiming to return to winning ways when they take on Newcastle in the EFL Cup round of 16 on Wednesday.
