Erik ten Hag rebuffs sacking fears and says Manchester United need time

Erik ten Hag denied any concern that he may be sacked by Manchester United after Tottenham’s 3-0 humiliation of his side at Old Trafford on Sunday.

United were in disarray from Brennan Johnson’s third-minute opener, before Bruno Fernandes was sent off later in the first half. Dejan Kulusevksi and Dominic Solanke scored for the visitors after the break.

This was the second 3-0 home league defeat in a row, following that against Liverpool at the start of the month. United are in 12th place with seven points from six games, with a goal difference of minus three. Ten Hag was asked if the executives, who are led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, may decide a change of manager is needed.

“I am not thinking about this,” Ten Hag said. “We all made in the summer the decision to stay together, as an ownership, a leadership group. Also we made the decision from a clear review what we have to improve and how we want to construct a squad. But we knew it will take some time, how the window went, some players late in like [Manuel] Ugarte.

Erik ten Hag stands in the rain at Old Trafford

“Also we have to make some improvement in [the overarching] organisation, we still have some injuries, we need some time. We are all on one page or in one boat together, the ownership, the staff and the players as well. I don’t have that concern.”

Of his frontline players, only Luke Shaw and Leny Yoro remain injured. Johnson’s opener occurred after the Spurs centre-back Micky van de Ven was able to run from inside his own half into United’s area. This was reminiscent of how Bart van Rooij created Twente’s equaliser in the Europa League 1-1 draw on Wednesday.

Given this, Ten Hag was asked if he is sure his squad is still listening to him. “Yes I am but it is clear and obvious when you concede a goal like this again, it shouldn’t happen and especially when we address it so loud and clear [after Twente].”

The manager was asked if this was United’s poorest display under him. “It is definitely clear but what I saw in the first 30 minutes is below the level of what we can expect from a Manchester United team and even when you concede so early you should stay calm and just stick together and stick to the plan then you would have a foothold in the game and we didn’t have this.”Gary Neville, a former United captain and now Sky pundit, slammed the performance. “It was an absolutely disgusting performance in that first half,” he said. “There will be a lot of questions to answer for that group [of players] and the manager in the next week. The pressure is going to get ramped up – it is going to be brutal.”