Ten Hag outlines one thing holding Man Utd back ahead of Manchester derby

28 October 2023 , 05:00

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Erik ten Hag has told his goal-shy Manchester United strikers to be more ruthless.

United face the ultimate challenge in neighbours and Treble winners Manchester City tomorrow and Erling Haaland ’s 11 goals this season is more than the entire Reds’ attack.

Ten Hag claims United are making progress because they are pressing well and are top of the Premier League ’s turnover list. He says they must be more clinical in possession to make this advantage count.

“We’re not consistent in possession at the level we can be, where we show we can be like we were at Arsenal away or in the first 20 minutes away to Bayern Munich,” said the United boss.

“For instance, pressing, we’re quite good. We have the most ball regains in the whole Premier League and the most middle regains in the whole Premier League. So there you see our defending and our pressing organisation.

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“But we don’t take advantage from our attacking transition moments and we should do because we have the players in our team, who can do that.

“We’ve paid some attention to it and this has to grow, it has to progress, then games will become more easy. The co-operation has to click and we showed this week some examples where we have many overload positions and going to the opponents’ goal and we don’t net or even hit the target. We should do better. I’m convinced that with the qualities of our players, they will go and score more goals.”

Marcus Rashford has been struggling in front of goal of late for Manchester United (Getty Images)

United’s four attackers of Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Antony have just five goals between them this season and just one in the Premier League.

Rashford has only one goal from his 12 games and ten Hag is adamant the England striker will recapture his form of last season when he netted 30 times for United.

“Especially, I give him the trust,” said ten Hag. “I play him every game and in most of the games, he finishes the game so I have a strong belief he will return to scoring a lot of goals.”

Ten Hag was belligerent before facing City at Old Trafford and insists United are heading “in the right direction” after reeling off three straight wins, despite losing six times already.

“I said we are in the right direction and we have a way to go,” he said. “I see positives and I also see negatives. In this moment, we’re six points back so we have to catch up. We know we have to progress the team.

“I think definitely, we’re back where we wanted to be. They are a hard team to beat and they find a way to win, but we’re going in the right direction.”

Ten Hag was also bullish about Alejandro Garnacho as United wait to see if he will be banned for controversially posting a couple of gorilla emojis, praising Andre Onana’s late penalty save against FC Copenhagen.

Onana defended his team-mate on social media and ten Hag said: “I want to emphasise that we’re together and united, and you have seen the post of Andre Onana.”