Man Utd: Ten Hag wants ‘better’ as he prepares to face club he ‘loves’
Erik ten Hag feels Manchester United must improve on their finishing having missed the highest number of big chances in the Premier League this season.
United’s lack of ruthlessness up top saw them fail to leave Selhurst Park with three points last weekend in a display where they showed vast improvements from their previous clash against Crystal Palace.
On whether Ten Hag is concerned with his side’s goal difference, he said: “We created a lot of chances in the first games of the season. Last week vs Barnsley, we scored seven, so we are capable but we have to be better. We have to improve. We have to kill in the box.
“Most important is that you create chances and that is what we are doing at the moment. We have many opportunities to score goals. Of course, the finishing, we have to work on.”
Despite United experiencing a turbulent start to this season, it is the first time in Ten Hag’s tenure at Old Trafford where we have seen somewhat of the controlling, possession based football that the Dutchman has heavily spoken of in his press conferences.
United begin their Europa League campaign on Wednesday against FC Twente, a side whom Ten Hag played for and supports as a fan.
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“I would have preferred to play against somebody else. It’s not nice to hurt something you love”, said Ten Hag.
He continued: “Of all the teams, Twente is the team I follow the most. I watch them as a fan, as a supporter, not as an analyst. It’s a different way of watching their games.
“Twente brought me a lot, I was put through their academy, so for me, a great deal of history is there.”
Since Ten Hag has been in the hot seat at Old Trafford, he has guided United to two successive seasons of silverware, winning the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, though the Europa League is a competition he failed to win in his first season and he’ll be aiming to change that this time round.
Ten Hag said: “It’s an opportunity [to win a trophy]. There are more roads to achieve the targets we want. This is the most difficult probably because in a tournament of 32, we have to be the best. We want to win all the competitions we are taking part in.”
Ten Hag’s first season in charge of United brought some memorable moments to the Theatre of Dreams, with United beating Barcelona in dramatic fashion, though the competition has been slightly tweaked since the last the Reds competed in it.
The Europa League now follows the same ‘Swiss Model’ as the Champions League does, increasing the number of games and Ten Hag is not a fan of the added workload on the players.
He said: “There are too many games. The top players are overloaded. This is not good for football, maybe it is good for commercial but players getting injured is almost unavoidable due to the overload of games.”
Last week, Manchester City’s Rodri spoke of the possibility of going on strike, and Ten Hag believes football would have to come together to make such an impact.
“As a club alone, we can’t change this. It’s about clubs and players and coaches. We have to work on this to improve the game and find the right balance. We are professional and revenues have to come, but we have to balance it out.”
One feature of the new format that Ten Hag is in favour of however, is matches being of great significance.
He said: “One thing is for sure that every match is significant. Every goal is significant.”
The 54-year-old has so far received more luck this season with injuries in comparison to last, though he is still awaiting on Luke Shaw to return.
Shaw has been sidelined with a calf injury and is yet to feature this season.
On the left-back’s progress, Ten Hag said: “I can’t say for certain [when Shaw will be back]. The plan is to be back before [the October international break], but I can’t be 100 per cent sure. It could be shortly after the break.”