Erik ten Hag is under huge pressure as Manchester United boss after failing to secure a win across what was thought to be a key week for the Dutchman and he has now sent a strong message to his players
Erik ten Hag has demanded improvement from his Manchester United forwards as he clings onto his job.
The Dutchman remains in serious jeopardy after leading the Red Devils to their worst-ever Premier League start. That continued on Sunday as United stumbled to a drab 0-0 draw with Aston Villa.
It leaves the club sitting 14th in the table with eight points and just five goals to their name for the season – only winless Southampton have scored fewer. And Ten Hag is sure that there will be improvement once the Red Devils start finding the net more regularly.
Speaking after Sunday’s stalemate, the ex-Ajax boss said: “We know in this moment we have a lack of goals, in that perspective it’s not a good start, we have to step up. That’s an area we have to improve.”
Ten Hag has already been putting thought into why his side hasn’t been as threatening as usual. And he is confident that once a few problems are ironed out, fans will see his side become far more fluent.
He added: “That will come. [There are] more reasons. Sometimes it’s the form. Rasmus Hojlund is just in the season, he is not up to 100 [per cent] fitness, match fitness. And he is our goalscorer, I would say our best goalscorer.
“But also others, we know they can score goals, like Rashford. But he scored in Porto, he had a good assist in Porto, today he created two very good chances.
“I think Garnacho is all season already a threat, but also scoring and assisting. Bruno has abilities to score goals. So we will get there and we trust the players. One day it will click.”
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And while Ten Hag was critical of his side’s attack against Aston Villa, he was left thrilled with the defensive display of his side. Ten Hag said: “This is our fourth clean sheet of this season and that tells something about the control we have in and out of possession, we are organised very well.
“In many games so far we create loads of chances – today we didn’t create that much, but we had the chances, with Rashford before half-time and after half-time. We had a free-kick from Bruno on the crossbar.
“And then also we have to see that in the end, when we defend like we did today, very solid, that you also have some luck in the end. They created probably the best [chance] of game, [with] the deflected shot and the block from Diogo.”
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