Erik ten Hag knows that Manchester United have to be more clinical in front of goal when they take on Tottenham at Old Trafford.
United played out a frustrating 0-0 draw against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon, as the Reds missed a handful of glorious chances to win the match. Both Fred and Marcus Rashford were guilty of squandering opportunities to score, as Ten Hag's side only managed to register two shots on target.
The Dutchman will be disappointed with United's lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, as Eddie Howe's side held on in the dying moments of the game to claim a point. The Reds have now managed to score just one goal from their last 49 shots, a worrying trend that Ten Hag will be eager for his side to correct.
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Despite Newcastle's recent good form, United's next opponents present a far more worrying prospect, as Antonio Conte's Spurs travel to Manchester for a mid-week clash.
This will not be the first time that Ten Hag has come up against Spurs, after his Ajax side agonisingly lost to the North London club in the semi-finals of the Champions League back in 2019. His former team won the first leg 1-0, yet the warning signs were still there for the Eredivisie club.
Speaking after the match, Ten Hag told Ziggo sport: "It's a great achievement. We've fought like lions. In the first part, we played very good football and the goal was deserved. We dominated but after a while we failed to play football. In that phase we had more chances as we could have scored more. Nevertheless it's a good result.
"We didn't anticipate well after the substitution [of Jan Vertonghen]. We weren't able to keep the ball and that made it unnecessarily hard. We had to follow the ball too much. Tottenham chose a more opportunistic style and it cost a lot of power to keep the pressure on them.
"We would have loved to have the kept ball a bit more, but then we had to change our system, which would have made it easier for them to avoid the pressure."
Ten Hag will be all too aware that his side need to capitalise on their chances on Wednesday if they are to have any chance of becoming only the second team to beat Tottenham this season.
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