However Manchester United fans feel about Erik ten Hag, they’ll likely find themselves agreeing with the manager’s assessment of Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford.
At least this part of it.
“Annoyed, disappointed, definitely,” Ten Hag said, via The Manchester Evening News. “I expected something different, I hoped before the game you can build on from the performance and result from Chelsea, so it’s very disappointing, the way we started the game.”
[ MORE: Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth recap, video highlights ]
The Red Devils charged out of the gates and had several shots blocked by Bournemouth in the first few minutes, but found themselves behind 1-0 when Dominic Solanke swept his trail leg into Lewis Cook’s cross.
“The way we started is no good, that is poor,” Ten Hag said. “It’s first five minutes of the game and especially against an opponent like today, very good transition team, you give them perfect circumstances, it shouldn’t happen.”
From that point to the hour mark — maybe longer — it was all Manchester United. But Ten Hag’s men failed to deliver a goal and found themselves down 2-0 on Philip Billing’s clipped header and Marcos Senesi’s thudded back post effort off a corner.
“After the second goal there was a breakdown in belief,” Ten Hag said. “That can’t happen. Most important is how we started. To see the difference to Wednesday when we were very aggressive, very focused from the start. That should be the standard for every game. ... You want to give your fans win. That is the demand on me as a manager and players as a team. Like you said, one step up, and then we go one step down.”
Bruno Fernandes, who did not have a great game in the win, laid United’s struggles bare and indicted the whole team
Bruno Fernandes reaction
Fernandes will be extra upset as his yellow card means he’ll miss next weekend’s big tilt with Liverpool. As one of United’s only consistent performers — at least relatively-speaking — the idea of the Red Devils winning at Anfield without him feels almost laughable.
“Everything was lower than the levels in the game before and that’s why when you play teams like Bournemouth, who are really aggressive and on the front foot, they press you, and you think it’s going to be easy, you get these kind of results,” Fernandes said.
“Everything was underperforming. Creativity, movement, and arriving with bodies into the box. Most of the time we arrived with one or two players, but in the last game we had more getting in the box to score a goal.
“Today, it was, as I said, underperforming. We just lack consistency and that’s a big part of football. It’s really important to be consistent every game and we’re not being.”
Oof.
