Erik ten Hag wants his Manchester United team to be more ruthless after they held out for a 2-1 victory over Everton at Goodison Park.
Alex Iwobi put the Toffees ahead inside five minutes, but United responded as Antony equalised before Cristiano Ronaldo, brought on in the first-half after an injury to Anthony Martial, put the visitors in front with his 700th goal in club football.
That was enough to secure the three points, with United having to withstand a nervy final few minutes as Everton threw everything at them in stoppage-time. It would have been a more comfortable conclusion for Ten Hag’s side had Marcus Rashford’s strike not been ruled out by VAR for handball with ten minutes remaining.
The United boss was less than impressed with that decision, but felt his side should have killed the game off regardless after they wasted opportunites on the counter.
“The ball can always come in [from Everton late on], but we should have scored already,” Ten Hag said.
“I think it was a goal, then it would have been game over. We had many more spaces we didn’t use on the attacking transition and that’s the next step we have to make. Happy with the result of course.”
“They’re difficult to score against but we scored two, maybe three, so that’s good.”
Ronaldo’s landmark goal came at the end of a week in which Ten Hag has been criticised and labelled as disrespectful, first for leaving the forward out of the Manchester derby and then for starting him in the Europa League against Omonia.
The 37-year-old only got his chance at Goodison due to Martial being forced off, though should the Frenchman be kept out of the side in the weeks ahead then Ronaldo could be set for greater involvement.
“It’s clear to say it is a massive performance from the player,” Ten Hag said. “Congratulations to Cristiano, I’m happy for him.
“Also that was his first goal this season in the Premier League so it will help him to score more goals in the coming weeks.”
