Man United have lost four of their first six games this season, with promising openings followed by costly mistakes.
Erik ten Hag has pushed his Manchester United team to correct their errors as they attempt to rebound from a dismal run of form against Burnley on Saturday evening.
United’s 4-3 Champions League group stage loss to Bayern Munich on Wednesday was their third in a row, following Premier League losses to Arsenal and Brighton both before the international break. Ten Hag’s team started well in the Allianz Arena, but they let up two cheap goals in four minutes.
This has been a recurring theme for United this season, as they show promise in the opening exchanges before allowing the opponent to take control with needless errors. And Ten Hag wants his team to avoid making such blunders if they are to recover.
So we’re in a brief gap between games,” Ten Hag said to MUTV. “So we have to find out how fit the players are during training.” And, of course, we have information and histories, but we still need to evaluate how fit they are acting in training before selecting a squad.
“It’s not about a single game.” We demonstrate in every game that we can play really excellent football at the greatest level, despite the fact that we are up against the best opponents.
One positive from Wednesday’s defeat was a first goal for Rasmus Hojlund, who made it 2-1 shortly after half-time with an instinctive finish that deflected off Dayot Upamecano. The 20-year-old was relieved to get off the mark early in his United career and Ten Hag is confident there will be plenty more to come.
Hojlund saw his effort against Brighton ruled out by VAR and the Dutchman looked back on that and Wednesday’s goal, adding: “The first was from across and the second now is coming from an attack through the middle. Yeah, but we know he can score, so we are happy. Now he gets a start and, I already said previously, I’m confident he will score goals.”