Erik ten Hag has ended up in the eye of the storm after recent disappointing results with the Manchester United. The criticism shows no signs of abating and so the coach gave an interview to Sky Sports to clarify the situation: “My last 24 hours have been as usual. You play, review the match and make assessments, make your conclusions and go from there.”
How did you process the defeat against Tottenham?
“It’s by looking back, watching the video of the match and then seeing where the problems are, that you can find the solutions.”
How many times have you looked back at the defeat against Spurs?
“Once. Sometimes you scroll back a little to find more understanding, you find deeper understanding, but only once. Then I saw it from the sidelines, so I have my own point of view.”
What is your point of view?
“It’s a bad performance, we have problems and I have to address the problems and give solutions to the team.”
What kind of problems do you feel you have to face?
“The most important thing is always to keep the belief. Stay in the game by keeping the belief. That’s the most important message we have to give because if you lose the faith you lose everything. We have to keep moving forward, stick to the plan and keep going.”
Have the players lost faith in you?
“For me, you always have to believe in it. Believe as an individual and believe in your teammate. Believe in your team and believe in the plan that you execute. That’s absolutely what you need as a team when you go into a game and during a game. You always have to maintain it.”
Do you think the players could take on more responsibility?
“It’s a shared responsibility. It’s my job, I have to make them play. I have to give instructions on how they should play and when there are problems in the game, I have to teach them how to solve the problems.”
Does he also assume his responsibilities?
“We are there together. When players have a bad performance, then I didn’t do my job well because they didn’t play as I expected. We are there together and we have to fight together to get out of it. We are in a transition phase. From the moment I arrived, we knew we had to change. We had to replace some older players and bring in new ones. Our choice was to bring in young players and you know it takes time to get the messages across, to get a game model across. introducing a new culture that takes time. In the meantime, you have to win and I think we have shown in the last two years that we win.
What are you missing?
“We have to incorporate the game model, we have to incorporate a stronger team than the one we have now and therefore we have to work on our problems and provide solutions. We have good potential on the players and I am sure that we will achieve the objectives we have set for this season”.
What are they?
“Obviously always winning trophies and finishing as high as possible in the league because that is definitely a very important goal for us.”
How big are these problems to solve?
“Nothing is easy, but there is nothing to panic about because I experience it so often with my teams throughout the seasons… We can solve them, this team can solve them.”
What did the owners and management tell you?
“We’re talking all the time. We’re talking about how we can improve the process. We’re all very impatient and so are our fans, and that’s what they’re entitled to. But we’re definitely impatient too and we want to win every game and when we lose everyone is disappointed, everyone is frustrated. It’s also our fuel to improve.”
How impatient is he?
“A lot. I hate losing, obviously. I have to give solutions to my team, so I have to focus on what needs to be better. They are very disappointed and that’s normal. But I know them, they are resilient people and they will recover. After every game we sit together , we give our opinion and there is two-way communication from the manager, from the coaches to the players and vice versa. We are in the same boat and we make sure we stay there.”
So do you really believe you’re all aligned together?
“Yes, and we saw this in this group, there is a good spirit. Even after all the failures they continued to move forward. You see that spirit in this team and you see that this is a team where they want to fight the for each other. You can also see the fans disappointed, but they stayed with us and continued to support us from the first to the last moment. We are in this together.”
Does criticism scare you?
“When you manage Man United you know that everyone will judge you much more than any other club. You have to deal with criticism and not make a drama out of it and focus on the things you were nominated for. That’s managing the team, getting the best out of the team. focus on the negative opinions about you as a person. That doesn’t help the process and I’m here to win, so I have to show my team that I give direction and keep going in the direction we want to go. Sometimes there are great recommendations and the I take it into consideration. Most of the time I don’t read because it’s too much. When you manage this club, there are too many opinions. I can’t take them all and give my opinion see what state he is in and I have said it several times. I have said it several times that I have to give solutions to the problems we are facing at the moment. After every game you have to step away from the game for a period. I’m also a person. I also have my emotions because I have to review the match clinically and distance myself from them. Once I’ve moved away from the last game a little bit, I go into it, review it and establish the right conclusions.”
If everything doesn’t go well in these next two games, do you think he will still be here?
“I don’t think about it, I’m not anxious. We are together. We created a union in the summer with the ownership and the management. We made this agreement and we all supported it. We also know that the strategy is to bring young players in a period of transition. They also know that in the end when we are in May, in all my last six seasons, there have always been trophies. That’s also what we’re aiming for now.”