Erik ten Hag laments "only criticism" of Man Utd in hard-fought Liverpool draw

17 December 2023 , 20:32

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Erik ten Hag laments "only criticism" of Man Utd in hard-fought Liverpool draw

Erik ten Hag felt that his Manchester United side could've been better on the ball in order to "hurt" Liverpool during their goalless draw at Anfield.

It was the United manager's "only criticism," with the Dutchman pleased with his side's endeavour as they claimed a hard-fought point on Merseyside following the 0-0 stalemate. The Red Devils, who were eventually reduced to 10 men when defender Diogo Dalot was shown a late red card, had chances to win the game through Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho, but they both fluffed their lines.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live post-match, Ten Hag admitted: "My only criticism would be in possession we could hurt them more, if you get one, two, three passes in. But that's the only thing. If we scored one of the big opportunities we could have won this game.

"Liverpool is a very good team, a very good attacking team and a lot of movement. You have to defend very disciplined and it is a big compliment to the team how they did - the spirit, and the passion and desire was there."

"We knew that beforehand that last year we beat them twice but we lost - and it was a big loss (7-0). Of course you want to take revenge. We have a good squad, a good team and we can make something out of this season."

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Ten Hag, whose team came into the game having suffered back-to-back defeats, also heaped praise on his players by saying: "There were a lot of [positive] aspects, absolutely. I think the performance was very good from our side. The game-plan went well, the players were brilliant how they stuck together and were in the fight."

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Erik ten Hag only had one criticism of Manchester United (Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

In stark contrast, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was left feeling a strong sense of "disappointment." Speaking to the same broadcaster, Klopp added: "I'm too long in the this to not understand what happened today with the whole build-up. I prefer them being in a better position so then we can play football.

"If you play in the Premier League with a team of quality like Man Utd and they just defend then it doesn't make life easy. We should have scored and that would have changed the dynamic of the game. The chances were big enough so we were unlucky."

Nathan Ridley