Erik ten Hag remains convinced he will succeed at Manchester United despite losing both of his first two matches in charge. Ten Hag became the first United manager since John Chapman in 1921 to lose his first two matches and defeat to Liverpool on Monday night would equal Chapman's unfavourable start.
United have not lost their first three fixtures of a new season since 1986 and Ron Atkinson was sacked as manager three months later to be replaced by Alex Ferguson.
"For me personally, that's never the issue," Ten Hag said. "I'm not here for myself, I'm here for the club and to restore the club.
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"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 get it done, and I'm convinced I 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 and also the team around, the coaches and the directors.
"I made that conclusion already that it could be (a difficult start). But you also see the potential of this team in pre-season, so now we have to work together to get the good performances back on the pitch."
Ten Hag hooked £55.3million signing Lisandro Martinez at half-time with United 4-0 down at Brentford last week but the centre-back could keep his place for the visit of Liverpool as Ten Hag is considering dropping Harry Maguire, with Raphael Varane expected to come in for his first start of the season.
Ten Hag coached Martinez for two years at Ajax and defended the Argentinian despite his chastening start: "I don't think it was a tough 45 minutes or more than any other player on the pitch.
"I saw the stats: he won his aerial duels, he won his challenges, he was good in the passing, but he also made some mistakes as the whole team did. I could've swapped 11 players."
United have not beaten Liverpool in the Premier League since March 2018 and their only win against their rivals in the last nine encounters came in the FA Cup fourth round in January last year.
Since Marcus Rashford's matchwinning double with Jose Mourinho as manager, Liverpool have won the Champions League, the European Super Cup, the Premier League, the Club World Cup, the League Cup, the FA Cup and the Community Shield while United's trophy drought has passed the five-year mark.
The only time United have finished above Liverpool since 2017-18 season was when almost every game was played behind closed doors.
"I don't know if you can tell that in football but what we have to do is, we know where we are now, we have to improve a lot, we have to work on our plan and not look at Liverpool."
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