Erik Ten Hag Demands More Hunger From His Manchester United Players

The Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has demanded that his players show more hunger in their forthcoming Premier League games.

This came in the aftermath of United’s abject performance in their 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon.

The loss saw United drop to fourth in the table as they failed to win for a third consecutive game in the Premier League following their 7-0 defeat to Liverpool and a 0-0 draw with Southampton last month.

“I was surprised we couldn’t match the determination, passion and desire of the opponent,” Ten Hag said after the game on Sunday. “When you travel to St James’ Park you know what will be going on, especially after we win the Carabao Cup.”

“If you want to win big games, you have to be mature and I didn’t see that today on the pitch. I don’t think we underestimated Newcastle. They play above their levels because they’re so eager but you could expect that.”

“They were determined to win this game, but you have to match that and be aware of the situation from the start. We didn’t enter the final third, the box, too many times of the opponent, but they could easily enter our box. We have to do much better.”

United’s next two Premier League games are at Old Trafford this week, against Brentford on Wednesday night and against Everton on Saturday.

“I think about Brentford, that’s the first game,” Ten Hag said. “Go game by game and definitely we need a different attitude. I can’t say the intentions were wrong. They tried to do it but the opponent showed more hunger and willingness than we did.”

“It’s normal. In a season you have setbacks, and you have to deal with that. We did that so many times, recently after Liverpool we came back so I don’t have that concern. I believe in my team. I believe they will bounce back.”

However, Ten Hag will be concerned at United’s lack of goals in recent games, which has seen them fail to score in their last three Premier League games.

“I think our attacking game was not good enough,” Ten Hag said after the defeat to Newcastle. “I don’t want to be focused on one person. It was about team performance. We didn’t break them down. In the first half we had a trap on the right side with Antony and Diogo Dalot but on the left we had almost nothing. That is the conclusion of the game.

“We didn’t create many chances and when we were there, we weren’t determined enough to score a goal. That’s the truth. The best chance was maybe for the equaliser for Anthony Martial, the deflected shot. But we didn’t create enough.”

“We were not happy. We played too high in the midfield and it was easy for the two centre-halves from Newcastle to defend our midfield players, so they had to play a bit deeper. Therefore we made the subs, to put Marcel Sabitzer as no.10 and Scott McTominay in a deeper role.”

United were trailing by a goal when Ten Hag made the surprising decision to substitute both his centre-halves Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, as well as Scott McTominay on the 83^rd minute for Fred, Victor Lindelof and Facundo Pellistri, but the Dutchman explained and defended his decision.

“We are losing the game and you try to save the game to bring a goal and go one against one in the back, bring a centre-back in who can defend with space in his back [Victor Lindelof] and bring an extra player in offence with Pellistri.”