Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has admitted that he didn’t know what to expect from his back four when they lined up against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night.
Ahead of the game, Man United were hit with somewhat of a defensive crisis. Harry Maguire was only fit enough to be named on the bench after illness, while Victor Lindelof missed the game due to the same problem.
Lisandro Martinez has also only just returned to the club after celebrations in his home land of Argentina after lifting the World Cup. It left the Man United boss with somewhat of a selection headache.
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The Dutchman selected full-back Luke Shaw and Raphael Varane, who himself played in the World Cup final just nine days ago, as his centre-back pairing. Forest were unable to get past the makeshift defence, with the two players earning praise from ten Hag, who speaking in his post-match press conference, admitted that he was unsure what to expect from the pairing.
"I think you always question yourself after a break," he said, via Manchester Evening News, "what will be the restart and we play a team - especially the back four - they never played together and a player who never played ever in a centre-back position (Shaw). And if you win three, concede no goal, another clean sheet, then you are happy with the performance.
"Rapha (Varane) shows once again his great personality, the great standard he is giving Manchester United by coming from the World Cup. A problem in the centre half position and he took the responsibility to play and he performed really well and he was once again really important for our team.
"I work in the rules and we are quite strict on keeping the rules, controlling the rules and if everyone is doing the job then you concede less goals, the organisation is right, it's always the base, the platform for winning games."
Goals from Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Fred saw Forest fall to a 3-0 defeat in the game at Old Trafford. The Reds did think that they had a goal back before half time through Ryan Yates, but the ball bounced off Willy Boly who was deemed to be in an offside position, with the goal ruled out after a VAR check.
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