Ten Hag criticised for words after shoddy Man Utd display

Jacque Talbot

• Updated: 9 Mar 2024 19:21 GMT
• 4 min read

Erik ten Hag has picked up flak for claiming that Manchester United ‘defended very well’ despite facing 23 shots from Everton in their 2-0 win over the club.

The Red Devils secured the win thanks to penalties from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford. But the overall display left a lot to be desired, with the Toffees managing to fire more shots away, despite playing at Old Trafford.

Everton made 23 shots to their hosts' 15, but Ten Hag insisted that his team played well and that his opponents’ strikes were not clear opportunities.

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"We defended very well" he told TNTSports. Our expected goals is much higher than them. We are defending low quality chances. Sometimes we are defending very low and we can do that very well," Ten Hag said.

"It was important. We had one bad result against Fulham in this calendar year. We had to put this right and keep the pressure on the teams above us. There are many games to play. Now we are back. We will keep pressure on them and see what happens."

That was hilarious, Manchester United win these games and say ‘right well done onto the next’

Needed two penalties, awful passing, when they can’t find someone in midfield they go long and even that wasn’t crisp. The Ten Hag era is petering out and he’s doing nothing to stop it

— Dharnish (@dharnishiqbal) March 9, 2024

Man Utd have conceded 50 shots in their last two games, with Sheffield United (469) being the only club who have faced more than them (467) in the Premier League this season so far.

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I understand Erik ten Hag is trying to support his players publicly.

But for a manager who talks about standards so much, the continued use of these sort of comments can work against him.

Everton had more open-play xG than United today. So where are the standards at? https://t.co/5rWqAPWbIB

— Alex Turk (@AlexCTurk) March 9, 2024

Nevertheless, when asked is he was pleased with the display, Ten Hag replied: "In areas yes, especially with our attacks and counter-attacks, but we can make better choices to rest on the ball, choosing when to break. We could have scored three or four goals not just the two penalties. We defended quite well, we could have been a bit better in the build-up

"We could have been calmer and more composed on the ball. Everton did well and pressed high which gave us lots of chances in behind."