Erik ten Hag claims he was “never” in the first-choice starting XI as Manchester United manager
It was a frustrating start to the season for the Dutchman and his team. After a 3-1 defeat to Brighton at the weekend, United sit 13th in the Premier League table with just two wins from their first five games.
They now travel to Bayern Munich to begin their Champions League campaign, with Copenhagen and Galatasaray the other two teams in Group A.
Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are the latest United players to miss out through injury, joining a list of unavailable stars including Mason Mount, Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw.
Asked if he was frustrated by United’s difficulties in implementing the type of football his Ajax side produced, Ten Hag pointed to the injury problems he has faced since arriving at Old Trafford last summer.
“One thing is true from the beginning [of] Last season I almost never started with the best, I would say the best starting eleven,” said the United coach.
“There was always something, like an injury. But you have to deal with it and we have always achieved results, apart from the period we are in now. This is football and that will always play a role. I’ve had the experience of it in the past, I’ve done it in the past, now things are going uphill.
“You have to deal with it and it is also a situation that I like because you have to deal with it and we have to deal with it. You have to know what to do and do it with a focus on the process.”
However, Ten Hag stressed there was no reason for his side to completely renew themselves after the defeat to Brighton and believed there were still positives to take from United’s performance.
“No, we don’t think we need a reboot, definitely not,” Ten Hag said.
“We are there and you can see that we played well in parts of the game. But we are also playing below our standard in other areas. What we need to demand is consistency and continuous improvement at certain levels over 90 minutes. That’s what we demand.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/erik-ten-hag-man-utd-starting-xi-injury-update-champions-league-b1108130.html Erik ten Hag claims he was “never” in the first-choice starting XI as Manchester United manager
