Erik ten Hag has admitted Manchester United lost ‘belief’ after conceding an early goal in the club’s 3-0 defeat to Tottenham.
Brennan Johnson scored inside three minutes for the North Londoners at Old Trafford, with Spurs dominating the opening exchanges.
Bruno Fernandes’ first-half red card compounded a miserable first 45 minutes for the Red Devils, who conceded twice more after the break as Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke got on the scoresheet for Spurs.
The defeat continued a poor start to the season for Manchester United, who languish in 12th in the table and have scored just once in three home fixtures at Old Trafford.
It’s three games without a win for Ten Hag, who is coming under increasing pressure amid a lack of progress under his management. The Dutchman criticised his side’s defending for the opening goal and admits the levels of his team are ‘not good enough’.
“To concede a goal after two or three minutes like that, it did something to our belief. Totally unnecessary,” Ten Hag said speaking to BBC Match of the Day.
“To concede a goal like this, the [opposing] centre-half stepping in and passing the whole team over the right side and then the winger tapping in at the far post. Same mistake as in the midweek against Twente, it should be stopped in the first moment.
“From that moment on we were stressed on the ball. We could not find the triangles or the switches, we had some good moments, but from that moment we could not get a foothold. And we can do better than that. Even after such a mistake from us we should stay calm.
“We had chances and our moments to get back in the game, with Joshua Zirkzee and Alejandro Garnacho when we still had 11 players and then after the red card too we had moments.
Ten Hag: I don’t think it was a red card
“We had our chances before half-time and in the second half with 10 men we had chances as well. It definitely had an impact on the game. I don’t think it was a red card.”
“First we have to deal with this and show resilience. This is not good enough. We have to accept this and get better. Focus on the next game and do things better than we did today.”
