Ten Hag pleased with Arsenal victory
Erik ten Hag was pleased with his Manchester United side’s performance against Arsenal at the MetLife Stadium, as the Reds recorded a third consecutive win in pre-season.
After wins over Leeds United and Lyon in our opening two matches of the summer – staged in Oslo and Edinburgh, respectively – we kicked off our summer tour of the USA in the same vein as Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho’s first-half strikes secured a 2-0 victory.
The Reds then also went on to win an exhibition penalty shootout 5-3, which was played out after full-time and decided when Fabio Vieira’s effort sailed over the crossbar, while all of the other eight efforts in the shootout were converted.
Read everything the boss had to say in his post-match interview with MUTV below…
Erik: We want to be a pressing machine
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POSITIVES IN AND OUT OF POSSESSION
"I think it’s very good. The way we played,I was really pleased, how active we were in and out of possession.
"That is the way we want to play and that is the only period of the year you can really work in training and translate it to games without it having consequences.
"But still, we want to win, and I think the lads showed we played a good game."
ENCOURAGING OUR YOUNGSTERS
"It’s fantastic. Manchester United is famous for always bringing young players up and it can be done. But we have to see.
"We have confidence, he [Kobbie Mainoo] is playing with confidence, and I really like his performance. But this year, he showed it in spring, then he got injured. We are really happy. There are more youngsters with us now and they’re all doing very good. But I don’t want to rise expectations too high.
"We have to see. The Premier League is tough but, definitely, you can see we have some really good young players who can play a role in the squad. But the bar is high."
Bruno's brilliant opener
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PRESSING RELENTLESSLY
"I think we did well, and we want to be like that: we want to be a pressing machine, so then you have to do everything in togetherness. That is so important, and today, we did it in both halves."
LOOKING FORWARD
"Of course, they are all great games. We have to go and it helps us to progress and especially those opponents, they are good. Arsenal is a really good opponent. They played incredibly good last season in the Premier League, so yeah, that’s good to match with them, then you will be better."