Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag admitted he is “not Harry Potter” following his side’s 3-0 humbling by Liverpool before hitting back at criticism over his coaching methods in a tense post-match press conference.
The Red Devils suffered a second consecutive Premier League defeat, with a Luis Diaz brace and Mohamed Salah goal seeing Liverpool breeze past their bitter rivals at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t want to talk about positives today,” the Dutchman said following the Manchester United defeat. “There are some. But we have to take this defeat. It hurts for us, especially our fans, we have to be humble and give compliments to Liverpool, but we need to move on.”
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Ten Hag was unable to hand a debut to £53million deadline day signing Manuel Ugarte in midfield on an afternoon where two Casemiro mistakes were seized upon by Arne Slot’s side, with the Brazilian substituted at half-time. But Ten Hag admitted it could be some time until the Uruguay international is fully integrated into the team.
“We have to build him into the team,” he said. “It will take time, so it’s not like I’m Harry Potter. That is what you have to acknowledge.
“And if you see Manuel Ugarte, he didn’t play so far in the season. Not one match minute. So he needs to build his fitness rate and then we have to build him in the team and I am sure he will contribute to our level and he will be an important player but that will take a couple of weeks, maybe even months.
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Casemiro’s disastrous performance came following a poor end to last season for the Brazilian, with Ten Hag having to dismiss rumours that the 32-year-old left the stadium at half-time.
“I met him after the game in the dressing room, so he didn’t leave the stadium at half-time,” Ten Hag continued. “Why I subbed him was because we are 2-0 down against an opponent as Liverpool, with their qualities, they are very good.
“We had to take risks because we want to bounce back, then you need players in midfield to cover ground, therefore we put Toby Collyer on the pitch. I think that in football everyone has to take responsibility. I’m sure he is a great character and he won everything in his career what you can imagine. I am sure he will keep contributing to our team and Casemiro is always winning so he will be there.”
Ten Hag also had a spiky response to a journalist who asked whether his team’s familiar failings were down to coaching or the players.
“What do you mean? Maybe you can explain to me with the mistakes that we make regular?”, Ten Hag responded, with the journalist raising the issues of giving the ball away on their own half, mistakes playing out from the back, being outnumbered on counter-attacked and giving up chances.
“You are sure?” Ten Hag questioned. “I don’t think so or you wouldn’t win trophies like we did and to beat big opponents. I’m sorry for you. After City we won the most trophies. I’m sorry for you.”
Ten Hag also insisted his side’s fortunes will turn around despite winning just one of nine Premier League points on offer so far.
“Just third game in the season, we have to build a new team. I have to explain this so many times, also on Friday at the press conference, we will build this new team, we have young players, we have players to build into the season, we had three players first start of the season, they didn’t play 90 minutes.
“We will be fine, but it is clear we have to improve and in the end of the season I quite am confident we will have a big chance to lift another trophy.”
The Red Devils face Southampton in their first game back after the international break on Saturday, September 14.
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