ERIK TEN HAG is convinced he will succeed at Old Trafford, with the Manchester United manager saying he has overcome shaky starts before and will “get it done” again.
The hope and optimism that followed a promising pre-season under the new coach has evaporated during a chastening start to the campaign.
The Old Trafford giants began the weekend rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table after a 2-1 home defeat by Brighton was compounded by last weekend’s 4-0 humiliation at Brentford.
United will attempt to avoid starting a top-flight season with three straight losses for the first time since 1986 when Liverpool come to town on Monday, but early results have not shaken Ten Hag.
“I’m not here for myself,” the former Ajax boss said. “I’m here to help the club and to restore the club.
“I knew before this is a challenge and I wanted this challenge. I knew before it was going to be hard but I wanted that because in my career, everywhere I started, the start was difficult.
“But I’ll get it done – and I’m convinced I’ll get it done here as well. Therefore I choose this project.
“I knew it’s a process and I will stay consistent to the philosophy and to the plan we had, and I keep confidence in the cooperation I have in the players definitely but also the team around, like the coaches and the directors.”
Ten Hag said he did not see the requisite attitude and “fighting spirit” from the outset in the humbling at Brentford, leading him to scrap the players’ day off last Sunday as they instead did intensive running.
“I took the decision on Saturday, actually during the game, when I saw the performance,” he said. “That is not the standard for Man United and actually it’s not my standard.
“We have to change that. I have to face the team, the players what the standard is and that we don’t accept this.”
“(The players’ reaction) is not a problem. I hope they are angry but angry with themselves and angry with each other that they didn’t take each other in the responsibility.
“When I say it’s not acceptable, you cannot deliver for yourself, for the team, for Man United and for all the fans of Man United.”
United have agreed a deal rising to £70million for Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro since the Brentford loss and further irons are in the fire.
But the way last season’s performances have bled into this campaign underlined the chasm between the 20-time champions and rivals Liverpool, who won 5-0 at Old Trafford last October.
April’s return fixture at Anfield ended in a 4-0 loss and a few days later interim boss Ralf Rangnick said United needed “open heart” surgery if they were to kick on under successor Ten Hag.
“I don’t have a comment or reaction to that,” the Dutchman said when those comments were put to him.
“I comment on what I see now and my experience this season. Pre-season we did quite well but the first two league games were not good enough. Clear.”
Monday’s match will be played out to a backdrop of protests as United supporters let their anger towards the despised owners be known.
Fans are at their wits’ end with the Glazer family and recently-formed supporters group The 1958 are leading their latest – and potentially loudest – protest against them before kick-off.
All eyes will be on how United’s players respond, particularly given the lack of leadership on the field was stark during the Brentford defeat.
“When the attitude is no good from the team then often the leaders are not there because they are the ones who give the example and go in front,” Ten Hag said. “Also that is a point we have to work on.”
Pushed on whether he had spoken to captain Harry Maguire about the need for greater authority and leadership, Ten Hag said: “I work always with a group of leaders, not one in particular and I spoke with the leaders about this issue.
“It doesn’t have to be always senior players but we have a core group who have to be the example and take the responsibility.”
- Originally published at 8:06am
I don’t condone racist comments in any shape or form but a person cannot be imprisioned for a racist comment. it is disgraceful what was said but at the end of the day that person has the right to his opinion even if it is a disgusting one. the best thing that can be done is the comment removed and the person in question should be banned from games by the club.
Are you familiar with “Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred Act (1989)” – http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1989/en/act/pub/0019/print.html ? It has been used to charge and imprison people who have made racist comments though it doesn’t appear to have been successfully prosecuted where the comments were made online.
We need to smash racism wherever we see it. Disgusted at some of the casual acceptance of this kind of behaviour.
Racism is blown out of proportion in this country.. simply ignoring it in cases like this is the best thing to do. If this was left go a few twitter followers of this person would have been the only people to see it.. now with the publicity attached hundreds of thousands of people have seen it.
I’m glad the racists have been exposed and hopefully banned from Shamrock Rovers. Racism needs to be nipped in the bud because it spreads among idiots very quickly. Shamrock Rovers fans take enough stick without having a racist label attached to them.
I’m glad the racists have been exposed and hopefully banned from Shamrock Rovers. Racism needs to be nipped in the bud because it spreads among idiots very quickly. Shamrock Rovers fans take enough stick without having a racist label attached to them because of a few uneducated simpletons.
Heard you the first time WS
Politicians should also be called to answer if they contribute to racist incitement
I dont agree with the tweet, dont even know who the player is, but being racist on the internet shouldnt be a crime. Get the post deleted …..problem solved.
all cars should be blue……..
@ stephen : just because it’s the internet doesn’t give you license to be a racist p$&#k , why should you be allowed to abuse people from behind a keyboard and once it’s deleted ‘everything is grand again’ ??
The gas part is, if the fan said it to the players face AND kicked the sh1ite out of him – nothing would have happened!! But be racist online?! Oh god forbid…
Mr Hamstrings, have you ever heard of the word “Assault”?
You can’t just pretend a racist comment didn’t happen once it has been deleted! Imagine how the player feels about an insult like that being thrown at him? If club officials ignored it, it would be adding insult to injury.
Imagine how the player feels now with it going out on every news wire in the country. Its a horrible comment, but the media now add serious injury to insult.
Agreed that its a horrible comment and would probably be better for the guy if it wasn’t in the public eye but it HAD to be reported to the Guards.
Without a doubt. No question of reporting it to the guards.
You have to laugh at the people saying delete it and it’s grand. Funny how they’re all white. You do realise the lad who received this tweet is black? Do you think he’s sitting at home going, “ah sure, he deleted it, I feel ok now”? Racism is not something to be swept under the carpet, the people who are saying we should do that obviously have no clue what it’s like to be discriminated against. Racism is not an opinion, it’s disgusting bigotry and it harms the victim or victims. Extreme levels of naivety from some people.
Here mick Lennon I was in tallagh stadium not so long ago and I’ve heard rovers fans abuse Gilbert in clear ear shot of stewards and it has been let go so about time they got caught and hopefully get prosecuted !
also a further point, any abuse that Gilbert has received during games were due to his ability as a footballer and had nothing to do with the colour of his skin
i dont know what you mean?
could have been a bohs supporter tweeted it
Same old rovers always trying to blame someone else, your club has seen the tweet, anyone that follows football in Ireland can see the tweet, and the person that posted it had rovers comments on their page going back a couple of months. There is even screen shots to prove them. Take the blame for once and stop trying to deflect the fact that the club has racist problems that have been going on for a number of years.
Gilbert should feel worse about his “performances” this year rather than this one incident…also its sad that LOI articles are constantly put up on this site, but only this one, a bad new story, has attracted significant attention and comment
Ok sort the racist thing out and them deport him
this all stems from the racist remarks made in the UK.
some journalist has seen the tweet and now is spinning it to try and make an Irish version of the story..
God save us with this over the top control of what individuals do.. the racist like tweet reference say that the person involved shows poor judgement of their view of the world and others in it if it is in fact a genuine poster and not a journalist running a scam for headlines sake….
Either way I’m not sure my non white colleges will give the comment as much thought as farting in private…. The comment deserves as much attention as that… Now can we all get on with our lives as we always have done…..
When it’s Bohs, Pat’s or anyone else there’s a serious racism problem among League of Ireland fans.
When it’s Rovers it’s just a silly schoolgirl whose actions shouldn’t represent the rest of the fans.
Rovers have handled it awfully going so public with it. It’s gone from doing the rounds among rival forums and being a bit of slagging ammo to becoming a national news story. Why did they feel the need to???
For what it’s worth I don’t think there is a racism problem in the LOI. When the issue of race does crop up it is usually Rovers though. Monkey Chants at Joey Ndo in Dalymount, Nazi salutes in front of their flag on European away trips, Turner and Zayed and the reaction to that incident.
That’s also not to say that all Rovers fans are racists. To do so would be as bigoted as the racist comments themselves.
There are rumours that Gilbert gave a thumbs down whist holding the crest of his jersey and made wa**er gestures towards a section of Rovers fans during the cup final on Saturday.
I would bet money that the girl in question sent that tweet in the heat of the moment from her phone right when that happened.
I don’t condone it or any racism for a second, I’m merely pointing out that that’s the problem with the likes of Twitter being so accessible.
The correct thing to do would have been to privately send a copper (I’m sure there’s at least one Rovers fan policeman) round to her house and put the absolute fear of god into her. I’m sure the Rovers fans more so than the club itself have their own way of weeding out racists.
did you send it Dave,your being very defensive and blaming rovers,sounds like your trying to deflect the spotlight from bohs fans and have innocent rovers fans tarnished
so much for freedom of speech.
So your a racist now Father