Erik ten Hag was not thrilled with Manchester United’s 1-0 loss against Atletico Madrid on Saturday, claiming that the result was unacceptable and that he had informed his team.
The tense friendly was played in Oslo, Norway, where Ten Hag suffered his first defeat as United manager, with Joao Felix scoring the game’s only goal.
It was a tight defeat to a very talented team, and it was not the starting XI Ten Hag would want to field on a regular basis in the Premier League, but the Dutchman was still furious after the game.
He was particularly frustrated with his team’s inefficiency in front of goal, believing that they produced enough chances to at least draw the game but failed to capitalize on them.
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‘At the end of the day, it’s all about the outcome, and the score was not good,’ Ten Hag told Manchester United’s club media. ‘If you create opportunities, you must reap the benefits.’
‘I think we created a lot of chances to score at least one goal, and they only created one, so I’m not happy with that.’ I’ve told the team that this is not acceptable; you must be sharp in the box on both sides.’
Ten Hag did identify some positives, though, and was overall pleased with his team’s performance aside from failing to capitalize on the opportunities that his team produced.
‘I think we contributed extremely well, and I think our team performed really well,’ he said.
‘Our possession and transition game was excellent. We created a lot of threats, had weapons, and created opportunities, so that part made me very happy.’
Anthony Martial started as the central striker, as he has all preseason, with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Elanga on each side of him and Bruno Fernandes behind him.
The Red Devils return to action on Sunday against Rayo Vallecano in Manchester, and while supporters are delighted to see Cristiano Ronaldo return to action, they will not see any of the stars who started in Norway.
‘The players that started will not play tomorrow,’ declared the United manager. ‘We’ll have a different starting XI tomorrow.’ There are few players who came on against Atletico Madrid who could start tomorrow.’
