Ten Hag: The game was ours

The game had been goalless and even until that point, but after the spot-kick miss, it was United who moved into the ascendancy, taking a two-goal lead within 10 minutes, through goals from Matthijs de Ligt and Marcus Rashford.

Alejandro Garnacho scored at the end of the second half to secure a 3-0 triumph and three points on the road for the first time this term.

“First 20 minutes was hard, tough, but that is often [the case] in games, you have to get a foothold in the game,” Erik said in his post-match interview with MUTV.

“Once Andre stopped the penalty, straight after, we scored a goal with Matthijs de Ligt, the game was all ours and we dominate the game from that point.”

The manager was pleased with Garnacho’s impact from the bench but, given the dominance we showed, felt the third goal could have come earlier for his side.

“I think we should have scored earlier on, we had the chances and we had the control, and we create some good chances to score the third goal earlier on.

“Of course, we are happy when you bring a sub on who has an impact and he [Garnacho] was the one who downsized the opponent to 10 with a good action and then a good finish.

“I think also the rest [of Garnacho’s performance], I was happy with this sub and that is how players should act from the bench and we need more from this.”

Another substitute to star at St Mary’s was Manuel Ugarte, the most recent of our five summer additions, after arriving from PSG on deadline day.

The Uruguayan came off the bench to make his United debut against the Saints, and Ten Hag feels sure he will bring some important qualities to our midfield department.

“It was not so easy for him, only two team sessions and partial team sessions because he was not ready to play fully in that team session.

“He came back from a game in Venezuela, had a long journey, but he is not already 100 per cent up to speed but it was good to give him some minutes, and to integrate in the team to already get some experience about the principles and rules of our game and you can see straightforward that he has attributes that this team need.”

Next up for the Reds is a meeting with Barnsley, the first hurdle in our Carabao Cup campaign for the season ahead, on Tuesday evening at Old Trafford.

“Of course, we have a plan,” added Ten Hag. “But first, we assess the team, how they are, physically, mentally, look at Barnsley and then produce a plan that gives us the win.”