Ten Hag: We need to match Everton's ire
Erik ten Hag insists Manchester United will have to be ready for an extra-motivated Everton side on Sunday, in the Merseyside club's first fixture since they were docked 10 points by the Premier League.
The punishment imposed on the Toffees, after the club was found to have breached the competition's financial rules, was announced on 17 November and has been a hot topic among fans, football journalists and pundits throughout the past week.
Both Ten Hag and his opposite number, Everton boss Sean Dyche, were asked about the situation in their respective pre-match press conferences on Friday.
"I can see the opposition, I can see they are mad," said Ten Hag.
"We know they are mad and that is their fuel. We have to match that and those standards."
Part one: Press conference v Everton
Press conference part one | Ten Hag has provided the latest updates on Onana, Evans, Shaw, Hojlund and more...
When later asked for his take on the 10-point penalty, Ten Hag replied:
''I can't tell [you that] because I don't know the details about it. So I don't have an opinion about that because we are not Everton.
"The fans I can imagine are very mad, but we can't do [anything about] it and we have to just play against them.
"We have to match their standards. When we match the standards, we have a great chance to win the game."
Meanwhile, Dyche admitted "we're shocked" by the sanction that has pushed his improving Everton side down the Premier League table from 14th to 19th place.
The Toffees' boss was quoted by BBC Sport as saying: "Seemingly the wave of noise after that was most people in football were shocked.
"The enormity of it. Disproportionate is a word that has been used by the club. Obviously we're going to feel aggrieved by that."
Dyche continued: "On the other hand, it doesn't change the focus. The focus since I've been here has been about sorting things out on the pitch.
"Getting the team to win, getting the team to feel different, performances to be different. We were obviously on the right lines for that and delivering strong performances I felt.
"This has given us a push backwards to come forwards again. The job hasn't changed for me. It's obviously made it a bit more difficult until the appeal of course."
Everton v Manchester United kicks off at 16:30 GMT on Sunday, with live updates and radio commentary available on ManUtd.com, MUTV and the United App.