Manchester United supervisor Erik ten Hag has made the puzzling admission that he “completely ignores” his facet’s 3-0 defeat at residence to Tottenham Hotspur on the finish of September.
Spurs dominated United, taking an early lead after Micky van de Ven barrelled by way of half of the hosts’ lineup earlier than squaring the ball to Brennan Johnson. Bruno Fernandes was despatched off on the cusp of half-time for a lunge on James Maddison earlier than Spurs added two extra objectives after the interval.
VAR didn’t overrule the on-pitch referee however United’s captain, who claimed that he slipped whereas making the sort out, had his suspension overturned by the Soccer Affiliation on attraction.
Ten Hag has not moved on. “I deny that sport, ignore that sport in opposition to Spurs as a result of we have been downsized to 10 with a 1-0 dropping place,” the Dutch coach informed the assembled media on Thursday evening, virtually a month after the assembly at Outdated Trafford. “After which the crimson card was overturned. So I completely ignore that sport.
“That’s not a good evaluation of the workforce to take this into consideration as a result of we did not have the possibility to bounce again.”
There’s some advantage to Ten Hag’s argument. The profitable crimson card attraction means that Fernandes mustn’t have been despatched off, thereby unfairly hampering United for greater than half of the loss to Spurs. Nevertheless, Tottenham have been comfortably on prime even when United had 11 gamers on the pitch.
As Postecoglou outlined on the time: “Their crimson card is a consequence of our dominance, we put them below a lot stress, they could not actually get out of their half.”
Ten Hag was additionally eager to laud United’s “preventing spirit” when afforded numerical equality. “However you see this workforce is resilient, this workforce is decided,” the supervisor insisted after overseeing a 1-1 draw with Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce within the Europa League.
“Towards Brentford, two powerful away video games now in Europe – Porto and as we speak once more [against Fenerbahce] – this workforce has character and this workforce confirmed preventing spirit and willpower to win video games.”
The Crimson Devils will want all that psychological fortitude after they journey to West Ham United’s London Stadium on Sunday lunchtime. Manchester United have received simply two of their final 17 Premier League journeys to England’s capital – each of which have been in opposition to Fulham.
