Ten Hag reacts to United's European exit

Thursday 20 April 2023 23:06

Erik ten Hag said his team did not reach the standards expected of Manchester United as we slipped to a 3-0 defeat at Sevilla.

The 5-2 aggregate loss, after being 2-0 ahead in the first leg, was the first cup defeat suffered by the boss since he took charge of the club.

It was a chastening night at a raucous Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium as a double by Youssef En-Nesyri and a goal off Loic Bade's shoulder condemned the Reds to a comprehensive defeat.

See what Erik had to say in his interviews with the official broadcasters, including MUTV, BT Sport, beIN Sports and Canal+...

Ten Hag's post-match verdict Video

Ten Hag's post-match verdict

Erik has his say on a difficult night in Spain, as United exit the Europa League at the quarter-final stage...

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

"A disappointing performance. It was not good enough. We have to do better. No composure on the ball and we made the wrong decisions to quickly concede the goal and we never came into the game. We changed [things] but, straight after half-time, [we conceded] another goal which was avoidable. It can't happen at our level." 

INDIVIDUAL ERRORS

"It's always about the team performance. Win together, lose together. We deal with the setback and have to deal with that. It is clear when we make these mistakes, it is difficult to win a football game. We have to be better, that is the demand. I think we lost a bit of our coolness in the build-up, they went high pressure, we didn’t really do well with that, I think we made more mistakes than we normally do. I think that the whole team today, we couldn’t catch up on the mistakes that team-mates made.  I think every football player makes mistakes in the game, of course, mistakes like this, they punish us straight away on this level, so of course, we had to take that away. In the end, I think it’s how you bounce back from the mistakes, and I think today, we weren’t strong enough to bounce back from the mistakes we gave them."

MISSED CHANCE

"We had a big chance with Aaron Wan-Bissaka [with a shot saved by Yassine Bounou in the first half]. It was a big chance to come back but we didn't bounce back in this game. Of course, I'm very disappointed. I expect much more. The fans expect much more and they are right." 

DID THE ATMOSPHERE PLAY A PART?

"I don’t think it’s anything with that, I think take away anywhere where we play, if we give away the goals we do today, I think we’ll lose. So that’s nothing to do with the atmosphere. I just think our own game wasn’t strong enough. [Did the crowd and Sevilla surprise you?] No, absolutely not. We were prepared for their intensity. We didn't take the right decisions on the pitch."

Sevilla 3 United 0

 Article

The Reds are well beaten in Spain and go out of the Europa League 5-2 on aggregate.

DEFENDING DE GEA

"He’s the one with the most clean sheets in the Premier League, so that shows he’s a very capable goalkeeper."

WERE THERE ANY INJURIES?

"It’s difficult, in this moment, we have to wait. We have to see tomorrow and then we return to England and then we can make up the bill from today, what happened, and then, yeah, we can look forward to the game on Sunday [against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Emirates FA Cup semi-final] and then we will see which team we can pick."

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

"I think they [the players] showed in the past they can [perform], but tonight we weren’t good enough. It was obvious, it was clear. We didn’t match the standards that you can expect from a team like Manchester United. We have to be better. Everyone can expect higher standards from Manchester United."

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