Erik ten Hag has bemoaned Manchester United’s ‘unacceptable’ defending as his side drew 1-1 with FC Twente in the Europa League.
United were held to a draw at Old Trafford in their Europa League opener, as Ten Hag’s former team hit an equaliser against the run of play to level.
The Red Devils had been in control of the game and led through Christian Eriksen’s superb strike, though Twente found a route back into the contest with a shock equaliser.
Sam Lammers surging run carried him through a succession of Manchester United challenges, before the home side briefly regained possession. However, Eriksen’s error saw him robbed of the ball and Lammers charged in on goal to fire past Andre Onana at his near post.
After a frustrating goalless draw at Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend, Ten Hag criticised his side for keeping Twente ‘alive’ in the game and not killing off the tie.
“We kept them alive, we were 1-0 up, controlling the game. You have to be consistent and keep going in the second half, we dropped the level and gave the goal away,” he said at his post-match press conference.
“We didn’t finish it off, we had to go for the second goal and so they [FC Twente] stay alive and we get punished with a mistake from ourselves. We are very frustrated, yeah.”
Ten Hag hits out at unacceptable Twente equaliser
Ten Hag hit out at his team’s defending for the Dutch side’s equaliser, admitting it was unacceptable that Lammers dribble through ‘almost the whole pitch’ without being stopped.
“The goal, it’s [a] team [mistake], a player of Twente can dribble through almost the whole pitch, or half the pitch, without stopping. That is not acceptable, we can’t give a goal away like this. We have seen, again, you have to keep going for the whole game; once you are 1-0 up you have to keep going and go for the second [goal].”
