Erik ten Hag changed his tone and declared he was happy with Manchester United s overall defending this season, despite criticising his team after their 3-2 loss to Arsenal.
United fell 11 points behind the Gunners in the race for the Premier League title, with Eddie Nketiah scoring a late winner at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
After that game, Ten Hag said United s defensive failings had been unacceptable .
Speaking ahead of an EFL Cup semi-final first leg against Nottingham Forest, Ten Hag explained he was talking about defending of the goals specifically and is otherwise pleased with his team s efforts at the back, although there are lessons to be taken on board.
I think in a lot of games we defended very well, we had a lot of clean sheets, Ten Hag said.
Against Man City [in United s recent 2-1 win at Old Trafford], we defended very well. I think, in general, also against Arsenal, we defended well.
I don t think they had many clean shots, I think the one time was from a free-kick. But the rest were shots from distance, when we had a lot of defenders in between the ball and the goal.
That s what I meant when I said all the goals were avoidable and it can t happen. That was my point: when you concede three goals in a top game, it is very hard to win the game.
That is what happened so that is one of the conclusions. It can t happen. We set that conclusion we have to learn and take this lesson.
Arsenal had 63 touches in the Manchester United box in this match.
No side have had as many in a single Premier League game in 2022-23 so far.
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst)
Ten Hag – who ruled Diogo Dalot, Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial out of the Forest game – also spoke about the importance of winning trophies, with United hoping to end a run without one since May 2017.
The 52-year-old won three Eredivisie titles, two KNVB Cups and a Johan Cruyff Shield in his time in charge of Ajax, and said: It s about that, it s about winning trophies.
We have a good opportunity, but we have to go from game to game. So now we play Forest, two legs, so focus on the first leg and don t think further ahead because that will distract. So the aim for tomorrow is to win that game.
“It is the best feeling you can have, winning a trophy. I had the luck in my career to win some trophies and it was magnificent, especially for the fans. It s so great.
“The fans here, they have some experience, especially the older fans. And now it s a period when Manchester United didn t win any trophies and it s too long ago, so we are aware of that fact. We have to do everything to bring a trophy in.
