Opinion: Good won't be good enough under Ten Hag

“Good is not good enough.”

It’s a line about the standards that our manager is looking to set at the club, whereby the Reds should never get complacent when thing are going well, and always be willing to strive for more. 

By no means is it a throwaway statement, Erik is clear on his standards and they appear in the early stages of his tenure to be very much in keeping with the United way.

On Thursday evening, it was highlighted why the Dutchman has been so keen to instil that kind of mentality into his squad. 

Despite picking up three points away in Europe, following our 1-0 win over Real Sociedad, it wasn’t quite enough to fulfil our intended target, when arriving in San Sebastian, of topping the group. 

The Reds knew that only a triumph by two goals or more would be enough to leapfrog the hosts and climb to the summit of Group E on the final matchday, via the head-to-head record. 

And so even with five wins from six, three from three away from home and four clean sheets from the six matches – a good group stage if you like - United have had to accept second place and will now enter the knockout round play-off on the next stage of our journey in the competition. 

After the match, both Erik and his players were keen to draw on the positives – another win, a clean sheet, the continued progression of the team and so on – but make no mistake, they wanted that top spot. 

With the head-to-head record the same following 1-0 wins for both sides across the two matches, La Real pipped us on goal difference – by one – and it shows the fine margins that the campaign can be settled by. 

United won’t dwell on it for too long and will look to manage the extra ties in the early part of 2023 as a result of finishing second.

As a fan, part of me is quite excited at the prospect of welcoming European giants such as Barcelona, Juventus or Ajax to Old Trafford as soon as February. 

For Erik, the continued progression of his side last night will entice him further, but he and his team ultimately know that a good Europa League campaign so far wasn't good enough to fulfil our group-stage goal.

My feeling is that it will only inspire the Reds to push even harder to continue improving under the Dutchman, which, to me, is something that can be viewed as a particular positive from our latest European trip.

The opinions in this story are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Manchester United Football Club.