Erik ten Hag has discussed his desire to embed a winning culture at Manchester United and has picked out the club’s best performances of his debut campaign.
United have enjoyed a positive first season under Ten Hag’s management and are fourth in the Premier League table, while the Red Devils ended a six-year wait for silverware with League Cup success in February.
Ten Hag’s team have the chance to make it a domestic cup double on June 3, when United will meet Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
There have been a number of stebacks along the way, including dropping points against Spurs on Thursday evening, and ahead of this weekend’s clash with Aston Villa, Ten Hag was asked whether two cup wins – but no Champions League football – would represent a successful season.
“As Manchester United, and as a top team, you have to compete and go for the win in every competition you are in, so that’s what we are doing,” he told his pre-match press conference.
“That is the culture we want to construct so that is what we are doing and it has to be in the mindset of every player and every employee who is working for Manchester United.”
Ten Hag was asked for his opinion on United’s best performances of the season and believes the club’s recent win at Nottingham Forest was among their finest as he looks to instil his style of play.
“We had a game two weeks ago against Nottingham Forest. I think that, for instance, was almost optimum,” said Ten Hag.
“It’s not so easy to play Forest – you see Liverpool struggling [against them] and Brighton struggling. That was a very good performance from our side.
“There are more games. Manchester City – that was a brilliant game – and also Arsenal. Both games we played very well. [There were also] many games where we were very dominant – against Real Betis and Sevilla at home [in the Europa League] and Barcelona – so we had our games where we played very good football.”
