Erik ten Hag believes Manchester United’s depleted squad played a major role in their defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
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United have now crashed out of Europe altogether as Kingsley Coman’s second-half goal sealed a 1-0 win for Thomas Tuchel’s side at Old Trafford.
The hosts registered just one shot on target in another dismal performance under Ten Hag, although the United manager was without several attacking options with Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Mount and Christian Eriksen all unavailable for the game.
Tuchel pointed out after Bayern’s win that United had a lack of ‘quality and personality’ in wide areas and among their substitutes, which made it difficult for Ten Hag to make any significant attacking changes in the second half.
When asked about injuries limiting his options in attack, Ten Hag said: ‘That’s clear. The players gave everything, you saw the spirit and, as I said, I have to credit the team; big compliment for the way they worked together as a team against this good Bayern side.
‘But, of course, when the game is going, you need energy from the bench, and especially in the frontline, the options were limited.’
Ten Hag also believes the result is an unfair reflection on United’s performance against Bayern.
‘We didn’t lose today in the Champions League, we lost it before, we have to acknowledge that.’ Ten Hag said.
‘I think we’ve had some good performances but then also we made mistakes, individual errors from players.
‘In the end, it’s not good enough but I think, today, the performance was very good again and we didn’t deserve to lose.’
Despite finishing bottom of Group A with four points from six games, Ten Hag insists there are plenty of encouraging signs from United’s Champions League campaign this season
‘Football is always when you don’t get the points, it’s that you are not qualifying. You have to take that, as a coach and a manager, and you have to look at the performances. We had some good performances in the Champions League, with attacking football, but, at the end of the day, we don’t have the points to qualify,’ Ten Hag said.
‘We have to accept it and learn from it. We’ve played some good football in the Champions League; for example Rasmus Hojlund scored five times and that’s a very good performance, and he has to take that belief into the Premier League. I think that counts for the whole team.
‘We know we want to be more consistent and me as a manager, I have to improve the team, the team’s progress, and I have to guide them, and the players have to take responsibilities, so we have to do that together. We want to be back again in the Champions League.
‘We always have pressure. We want to win every game. You have seen today, against one of the favourites for the Champions League, we go and give everything to win the game. There was the belief. We had that before the game, you’ve seen the spirit of the team on the pitch and there will be at Anfield on Sunday.’
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