Ten Hag reacts to loss to Spurs

The boss clearly felt the decision to send Bruno Fernandes off was the wrong one, as referee Chris Kavanagh brandished a red card for our captain's first-half foul on James Maddison in midfield.

However, he was also upset with the way his team conceded, particularly the first goal, and admitted the Reds were too "stressful" on the ball.

Here are some of the key comments from Ten Hag during his interviews with the official broadcasters, including Sky Sports, talkSPORT and the BBC...

BRUNO'S DISMISSAL

"I don't think it's a red card. [Should VAR have intervened?] I don't want to judge and I don't want to give a comment on this. The referee gave him a red card. I've got my opinion - I don't think it's a red card. I think that's the case."

DID IT IMPACT THE RESULT?

"We had big chances and it was only 1-0. We could have made a comeback and it had a big impact on the game. We had chances, we had our moments to come back into the game. Joshua Zirkzee and when Alejandro Garnacho hit the post. We had our chances as well, when down to 10 men."

THE OPENING GOAL

"I think, after two or three minutes, to concede a goal like this did something to our belief. It was totally unnecessary. You can't concede a goal like the first goal, the centre-half [Micky van de Ven] stepping in and passing the whole team over on the right side and crossing to the far post, and the right-winger [Brennan Johnson] is tapping in. It was the same mistake we made in midweek against Twente. We should stop it at the first moment and should be in a better position."

WHAT WENT WRONG?

"You saw that we were stressful on the ball from that moment on [the opening goal]. We had too many mistakes and never got a foothold in the game. The press was no good in the first half. We conceded some counter-attacks after we countered and we made some very bad decisions when we had a lot of space. It was a bad start to the game. Tottenham were dominant. We couldn't get the right press. We also made mistakes in possession. We couldn't find the spare man, we couldn't pass over the press."

STUNNED AFTER THE RESTART

"Still, we are in the game so we made some changes to strengthen the midfield and wait a little bit longer to press. Unfortunately, we conceded a second shortly after half-time. We shouldn't concede so quickly. The goal, from a counter-attack, was a mistake. It shouldn't happen. We have to talk to assess things."

WE MUST MOVE ON

"It is always a new day. I told them, just in the dressing room, to come on. Tomorrow is a new day. We definitely have to learn, we have to do things better. We have to be better in the pressing and also better on the ball. There were situations where we could have played better, found the spare man and kept the ball and we didn't, which was so disappointing. I just focus on Porto. We close this game down, deal with it and then we move on. We will turn this around. Tomorrow, we will start all over again. The season is still very young, with many games to play."

NOT A TIME TO TALK

"I don't want to talk today about progress after such a defeat. We have to deal with it and show resilience. We definitely don't talk today about progress. We want, first, to deal with this defeat. We have to show resilience because this is not good enough. We have to accept this and, from this point on, we have to do things better."

DEFIANCE OF THE STRETFORD END

"It means a lot to me. You see always there, together, the fans and the team. You saw also the spirit of the team was very good. They kept fighting and also created chances. We will learn from it. My players are strong characters and will bounce back. You've seen how they work and how the spirit is. There is no issue."