‘Very Poor and unprofessional’ – Ten Hag clear on who’s to blame after Man Utd throw away two-goal lead at Tottenham

Erik ten Hag admitted that he anticipated Tottenham’s comeback coming but was too late in making substitutes to help Manchester United turn the tide on Thursday night.

In the seventh minute, United took the lead in north London, with Jadon Sancho finding the bottom corner with a perfect finish. Fraser Forster denied Marcus Rashford twice before he made it 2-0 by sprinting onto Bruno Fernandes’ long pass and blasting in at the near post.

Tottenham were booed off at halftime, but they responded after the break, with Pedro Porro scoring on a volleyed finish from a loose ball. Fernandes should have restored the two-goal lead, but his close-range shot hit the crossbar after weaving his way past the defense.

Son Heung-min missed a terrific chance, and Eric Dier missed a free header, but Spurs’ persistence paid off. Son hammered in the equalizer after Harry Kane found him at the back post.

Ten Hag attempted two double changes, sending on Fred and Anthony Martial in the 61st minute and Wout Weghorst and Tyrell Malacia 10 minutes later, but neither worked. The United manager was irritated while watching his team from the sidelines, but he did not respond quickly enough.

“It was the same as it was before half-time,” he explained to BT Sport. “We lost control, we conceded the goal – you could see it coming, and I had already prepared the substitutes, but I was a little late.”

When asked if his squad needed to improve its game management, he said, “Of course, manage the game, keep the ball.” We threw away so many easy balls. Have a strong defensive organization, which we lacked at times.

“It was quite obvious with the goals [we conceded] – we didn’t block the crosses, and you have to be proactive there.” You must step forward and block the shot. The second [goal] was a long ball that we didn’t squeeze out since it was so easy for them. They kept coming, and it seemed so simple to score back then.”

Ten Hag saw Fernandes’ miss with United leading 2-1 as the game’s pivotal moment.

“Of course, when you’re 2-0 up, you’re disappointed when you draw; it’s quite obvious, but we have to take it,” he explained. “After 2-1, we had chances to make it 3-1, but we didn’t, and then we gave up a goal.” After all, 2-2 is a good draw this week, in my opinion.

“We weren’t that good over 90 minutes, and we didn’t play particularly well in the first half, in my opinion.” We were up 2-0 at halftime and needed to score another goal.”