Manchester United

Manchester United

Premier League • England

Ten Hag provides integral reason Man Utd were so poor; claims result had ‘nothing to do with City’

Erik ten Hag of Man Utd

Erik ten Hag says Manchester United were thrashed by rivals Manchester City because they had ‘a lack of belief’, while he also claimed the 6-3 scoreline had ‘nothing to do’ with Pep Guardiola’s side.

The Red Devils went behind just eight minutes in when Phil Foden finished from a Bernardo Silva pass. He went on to secure his brace in the first half, while the unstoppable Erling Haaland also got two goals before the break.

Manchester United headed down the tunnel 4-0 down and Ten Hag had some serious work to do to get his players believing again.

His team talk worked to some degree as Antony registered the first goal of the second half, firing a left-footed strike past Ederson. However, City soon regained control and this saw both Foden and Haaland complete their hat-tricks.

Anthony Martial found the net in the 84th minute and then scored a penalty in stoppage time, making it 6-3. But City were never in serious danger and picked up three points at the Etihad.

During a post-match interview with BBC Match of the Day, Ten Hag named his team’s ‘lack of belief’ as the main reason they were beaten. He also claimed City had little to do with the scoreline, as this was down to United’s terrible display.

“It’s quite simple, it’s a lack of belief,” Ten Hag admitted. “When you don’t believe on the pitch then you can’t win games, that is unacceptable. We get undisciplined at following rules and you get hammered, that’s happened today.

“For me it was a surprise. We were not on the front foot, we were not brave on the ball and there were spaces to play but we were not brave enough.

Ten Hag positive about second half

“All the credit to City, but it’s nothing to do with City, our performance was not good. It had to do with the belief as individuals and as team.

“From the first minute I felt it and at half-time we changed things and we changed attitude. We saw a different Manchester United after half-time and we scored goals, we created some more. On the ball we were more brave, we came in the opponent’s half and we scored three goals.

“In this moment I can’t think about positives. We let our fans down, we let ourselves down and we’re hugely disappointed.”

In an interview with Sky Sports, United midfielder Christian Eriksen said: “It came very heavy. Everyone feels it was a very bad day at the office. We started on the wrong foot. They had chances straight from kick-off. We can only blame ourselves.

“We missed a bit of courage to play out from the back and we let them be at their strength. The main focus from this game will be on ourselves.

“There are a lot of things we need to change and a lot of things we need to do better. Today was far from acceptable from what we should be doing.”

Meanwhile, Roy Keane said United should be ’embarrassed’ and named two problem areas for Ten Hag.