Erik Ten Hag Criticises Manchester United’s Mentality

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag questioned his players’ mentality and declared that they did not play with maximum effort in their 1-1 draw against FC Twente in their Europa League group stage game on Wednesday.

“You saw it was the game of their life,” Ten Hag said afterward. “They fought for every yard and we didn’t. And 99 per cent is not enough, you have to give 100 per cent.”

“You have to kill the game, you have to finish it off. We are leading 1-0 and then there is coming an atmosphere in a team. We bring the game until the end but you have to go for the second goal and then you kill the game.”

“You saw there was a very good spirit in the Twente team, you could see after the draw, how they celebrate, what it meant to them, they were on the pitch.”

United had taken the lead in the first half through Christian Eriksen, but failed to control the rest of the game and allowed Twente’s Sam Lammers to equalise after 68 minutes.

“We can’t allow them a situation with the equaliser where one player, the right back from Twente, is dribbling over the whole midfield without being stopped.”

“We are very ambitious and when you have ambition you have to perform, to prove the point and especially today second half I think we were too easy-going, too complacent. We didn’t bring it over the line and as a team, you have to deliver this.”

Ten Hag was so frustrated with his side’s performance against the Dutch side that he took the rare step of openly criticising them

“I think often the mentality is very good from this team. I saw in many games how high our work rate is and that is often very good.”

“But today I have some criticism. But it is not only the team that has to look in the mirror as well, I am part of it. We should have acted different. Especially second half.”

“You have to kill the game, especially if you know we have some problems with scoring goals and if you have a goal you need to be consistent in your game.”

United had hoped for a winning start to their Europa League campaign, especially as their next two games in competitions are difficult fixtures away at FC Porto and Fenerbahce

“It’s the first game in the Europa League, it’s very important you get a win,” Ten Hag said. “I’m not thinking in this moment about a draw being less damaging in the first game, I am only thinking about the performance, what we have to improve and where we have to be more consistent. It’s about building good structures, creating chances to kill teams off.”

“We have to build and tomorrow we have to keep going. Tonight was not good enough; we should have won. We kept the opponent alive and we did not finish it off after we went 1-0 up, that’s not good, we know this and we have to learn from this. We have to be more secure, we have to look for more moments where we can dominate the ball and speed up the game to go for the second goal.”