Ten Hag threatens to ignore Neville’s ‘not good enough’ warning

Robin Bairner

• 3 Apr 2023 09:15 BST
• 3 min read

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has indicated that Wout Weghorst could remain at the club beyond the expiration of his loan deal from Burnley, despite Gary Neville branding the Netherlands forward “not good enough”.

Weghorst led the line for Man Utd against Newcastle at St James’ Park, a match that saw the Red Devils’ top-four hopes called into question as they suffered a 2-0 defeat.

The 30-year-old was a cheap January arrival following the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo in November by mutual consent but has yet to score a Premier League goal for his new side, underlining the desperate nature of the deal.

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Ten Hag insists, though, that the striker is doing well and could even be in line for a prolonged stay.

“Of course (he could stay) and I think he’s doing a lot of elements of football really well.

“He’s doing a really good job for us in pressing. He’s the leader of the process in the pressing, starts the press, he’s very good in the backward pressing.

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“He’s taking other positions, his link-up play he’s doing really well.

“He’s making good movements, making space for others, so he’s also good in the set-plays, so he is really contributing to the performance of this team.”

’Ten Hag badly let down’

Gary Neville, though, says that Weghorst is indicative of a penny-pinching January transfer window from the Man Utd board, who should have spent properly to ensure a strong conclusion to the season from the team.

“He obviously isn’t good enough to be a Manchester United No.9 and a striker, but Erik ten Hag was doing really well for the Manchester United players and they needed supporting in January with a top-class striker,” he said.

“They lost Ronaldo, they lost Edinson Cavani last summer, Antony Martial was injured - you cannot play without a centre forward. To play football really well your centre forward has to play really well and your goalkeeper - it’s just a rule - and Weghorst doesn’t always play well, so for me, Ten Hag was let down badly in January by the club in the sense that they've obviously got £900 million worth of debt and they couldn’t afford to bring in anybody else. That’s the harsh reality of it.”

Man Utd are fourth in the Premier League but only one point clear of Tottenham, albeit with a game in hand.