When Manchester United lost to Manchester City 6-3 on Sunday, coach Erik ten Hag criticized his side for lacking bravery.
WHAT OCCURED?
Erling Haaland and Phil Foden each scored a pair of goals for their local rivals, who were leading 4-0 at the break. United was soundly defeated by these opponents. The two finished off their hat tricks in the second half, but Antony’s goal and Anthony Martial’s late double cut United’s deficit in half.
It’s quite simple, it’s a lack of belief. When you don’t believe on the pitch then you can’t win games, that is unacceptable,” Ten Hag told BBC Match of the Day when asked to assess his side’s performance. “We get undisciplined at following rules and you get hammered, that’s happened today. For me it was a surprise. We were not on the front foot, we were not brave on the ball and there were spaces to play but we were not brave enough.
“All the credit to City, but it’s nothing to do with City, our performance was not good. It had to do with the belief as individuals and as team. From the first minute I felt it and at half-time, we changed things and we changed attitude. We saw a different Manchester United after half-time and we scored goals, we created some more. On the ball we were more brave, we came in the opponent’s half and we scored three goals. In this moment I can’t think about positives. We let our fans down, we let ourselves down and we’re hugely disappointed”, Erik Ten Hag further said.
Manchester United lost on Sunday, their first loss in five games, and they now trail league-leading Arsenal by nine points. While City is still unbeaten in the Premier League, they are one point behind Arsenal.
