Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag takes blame after Brentford battering drops United into basement
- by Agence France-Presse , Aug 13, 2022
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said he had the "main responsibility" for a humiliating 4-0 loss at Brentford on Saturday left the one-time kings of English soccer last in the Premier League.
Brentford, who only ended a 74-year absence from English soccer's top flight with promotion to the Premier League in August 2021, scored four goals inside the opening 35 minutes to spark joyous scenes at its west London stadium.
United fell behind in woeful fashion when goalkeeper David de Gea somehow let a Josh Dasilva shot slip through his grasp before Mathias Jensen struck as the visitors failed to play out from the back.
Ben Mee then exposed United's frailty from set pieces for his first Brentford goal and Bryan Mbuemo rounded off a stunning counterattack 10 minutes before half-time.
Ten Hag, the former Ajax coach, had seen his United reign begin with Brighton recording their maiden win at Old Trafford last week, but this defeat plunged the Red Devils to the bottom of the table for the first time in 30 years.
"You have to take responsibility on the pitch as a team and as individuals, that's what we didn't do," Ten Hag told Sky Sports. "What I asked them to do is play with belief and take responsibility for the performance. We have to work on that."
He added: "The manager is responsible as well. He has the main responsibility and I'll take that and work on that."
In a separate interview with the BBC, the United manager said his team had to be "ready for the battle".
United was last crowned English champions in the 2012-13 season in manager Alex Ferguson's final campaign before retirement.
But while Ten Hag was keen to bolster his squad, he was adamant the team he sent out at Brentford were far better than this result indicated.
"It is clear we need players but I don't want to think about that in this moment," he said. "The good players we had should have been better. I hoped for a better start, but still I have to believe because I have seen good things but the two games from now are disappointing."
Former Manchester United and England full-back Gary Neville, a longstanding critic of the Glazer family, the club's U.S. owners, slammed the hierarchy at Old Trafford for failing to give Ten Hag adequate support.
"Manchester United has known for 8-10 months they needed to rebuild the squad for the summer," said Neville, now a Sky pundit. "(Former manager) Ralf Rangnick said it was open-heart surgery. To not get the players in early, the quality of the players, the number of players that Erik ten Hag needed to be able to start the season, is baffling and difficult to forgive."
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© Agence France-Presse
Why are the Americans, the 'Glazer' family even involved...they are nowhere to be seen or to answer for this debacle, perhaps hiding behind trees. Perhaps they need to call up Donald Trump and take a quick course from him in how to stand up to crowd and answer questions . We on the North American continent suck in soccer, having no accomplishments, whether on producing a great soccer teams, or producing lousy talent, or producing lousy soccer journalism, lousy soccer commentating or never producing any new ideas on soccer. So what are we doing running a club like Man.Utd when we have no DNA doing anything good in soccer coming from the North American continent.
Man.Utd has become an ENGLISH institution, for English people, like my favorite English dish Yorkshire Pudding is, although I ranked English food the worst in the world.
Man.Utd. needs to be sold to an English entity....not to an American entity who thinks its cool to be with 'in-crowd' in running a well-known soccer club. Look at Wrexhall, where two idiots from Hollywood want to get involved in soccer.
Man.Utd has a good coach, but they need better players. This whole game began with a festival of errors, which you can't do anything about. With a new coach, new players, getting a new rhythm, new ideas and flow is important. But things get worse when STUPID mistakes by veterans can cause unforeseen a psychological disaster among the players...Stability became an issue.
Their opponents were no great shakes, as you saw in the second half , they scored NO goals other than that disaster in the first half....Yes, Man.Utd needs a striker and they need a tricky winger that draws defenders, creating unforeseen shifts in opponents defense, opening spaces. And they need a NO NONSENSE ,enforcer like a Keane to take charge, take names, at midfield. Right now there is no leadership coming from the back, there is no stability.
Man.Utd, needs to get back to the formula of good wing play, penetration down the flanks, creating havoc, and able to kick ass around midfield, with a good passing ability from the mid....
A lesson from trump you must be kidding.
stand in front of a crowd and lie thru your ears.
please leave trump out of soccer
but your comments of an American owner really?
how about Russian owners or Saudi owners they are all billionaire owners and want the teams to increase in value.
none of these owners have any interest in the regular fan but making money on their investment.
I turned on the game almost at the half, so I missed the goal scoring, except for the highlights. Then I looked at the Man U lineup and I asked myselft whether Ten Hag has some idea of the players' abilities. Maguire and Shaw have had their runs at the back. I would play Varane over Maguire in a heartbeat. Erickson as one of the twin holding mids after playing as a false 9 the first week? Erickson showed he still has it as a creator at Brentford last spring, ironically! He is an OK defender, but that is not his strength. The team still has too many stars, ex-stars and star-wanna-be who have not yet proved themselves. With the constant turnover of coaches and nobody competent to sign players needed to have a cohesive side, Ten Hag is in for a world of hurt. He, like Erickson, is undoubtedly asking himself why he took the job. His reputation is such that he will begin to sort it all out, but it is likely that Man U could end up mid table.