Erik ten Hag left annoyed by Sky Sports reporter after 'familiar' Man Utd question
Erik ten Hag endured another miserable afternoon with Manchester United as they were smashed by Tottenham, with the Dutchman growing tetchy in his post-match media duties
A tetchy Erik ten Hag lost his cool with Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davison as he was questioned over Manchester United's defeat to Tottenham.
Ten Hag saw his side embarrassed by Spurs at Old Trafford on Sunday for their third loss in seven Premier League games. Brennan Johnson put the visitors ahead after just two minutes and 35 seconds, before Bruno Fernandes saw red for a high tackle on James Maddison.
Dejan Kulusevski acrobatically doubled his side's lead moments into the second period before Dominic Solanke poked the ball home to wrap up the scoring. It was another miserable afternoon for Ten Hag.
And he was understandably not in the best of moods as he completed his post-match media duties. Davison asked Ten Hag whether United were guilt of committing 'familiar failings' under his management.
Ten Hag did not take kindly to that question though, replying: "I don’t think… I’m not aware what you are thinking. What do you mean?" Davison then clarified: "I mean turning the ball over when you’re trying to play out, I mean the press not looking entirely coordinated..."
The United manager did then concede that his players had struggled to press Spurs effectively when out of possession. "The press was no good in the first half, that I agree with," he said.
"But how we concede some counter-attacks after we counter, we make very bad decision-making, we had a lot of space and that’s then also, I would say, the form of the form of the day."
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Rather than the 'familiar failings', Ten Hag pinned the blame for his side's defeat on their awful start to the game. He admitted that Spurs were the dominant team and that his side deserved to lose.
Ten Hag added: "It’s a bad start to the game. Tottenham were dominant, we couldn’t get the right press and we also made many mistakes in possession. We couldn’t find the spare man, we couldn’t pass over the press, we made wrong decisions but we could have come back in the game.
"We had chances with Zirkzee and with Garnacho on the post and then the red card, of course, changed the game. It was no good. It’s not possible that a player from the back can dribble through the whole team, a centre-back of the opponent, and then put a cross in.
"You stop that first and also on the counter-attack and we made very clear before the game how we should defend this so this can’t happen. Then we lost a bit of confidence and we were also poor in possession. We can do better there and all the players know this.
"It is always a new day and I told them in the dressing room, 'Come on, tomorrow is a new day', but, yeah, definitely we have to learn. We have to do things better, we have to be better at pressing, especially also better on the ball.
"We have to learn situations where we could have played better, to find the spare man or play over the press, to keep the ball and play from there and we didn’t do that. Of course that is disappointing."
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