‘I’m Disappointed As A Manager’, Says Ten Hag After Man Utd’s Europe Exit

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, Sports News Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Erik ten Hag has expressed his disappointment at Manchester United Uefa Champions League exit on Tuesday night.

In a must-win match to keep United hopes alive in Europe, Ten Hag’s men fell to Kingsley Coman’s only goal condemning them to finishing bottom of Group A.

Fielding questions during a post-match conference at Old Trafford, the Dutchman said, “So, that is of course disappointing. We are disappointed as a group, and as a manager I’m disappointed. We should have done better.”

“So, I looked at my team and, yeah, we had opportunities in games and we were in winning positions. I think we scored many goals. But then also, we have to see we gave it away sometimes by individual errors, but by not one player, but by more players and not every time the same.”

In spite of the loss on Tuesday night, Ten Hag believes his sides deserved more from the result.

“We didn’t lose today in the Champions League, we lost it before. We have to acknowledge that. I think we’ve had some good performances but then also we made mistakes, individual errors from players. In the end, it’s not good enough but I think, today, the performance was very good again and we didn’t deserve to lose.”

The 53-year-old,however, pointed out that there was a glimmer of hope in the Red Devils performance on the night.

“The team did very well, we were very good in the defending organisation, we were very good in the pressing. We had many ball recoveries, especially at the start of the second half. I think the team was very good together and there was good spirit. We won a lot of balls but didn’t benefit from it,”he said.

“Also we played against a strong side – Bayern is a good team and even if they are not in the game, they have individual class to use one moment and unfortunately, it happened.”

As to Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw’s recent addition to the injury list, he revealed the waiting game was all he could afford until the medical team assessed the situation.

“I can’t say at this moment. Obviously, I have to wait 24 hours and then we have an assessment, a diagnosis, so we have to wait for it,” he said.