Manchester United’s players were told to stop feeling sorry for themselves by a furious Erik ten Hag in the aftermath of their shocking defeat by Brentford.
United were thrashed 4-0 by Brentford on Saturday in an embarrassing result which left the club bottom of the Premier League after two games. The Ten Hag could hardly have got off to a worse start, with Saturday’s defeat coming after a 2-1 loss against Brighton at Old Trafford on the opening weekend of the season.
The mood is already low at United, who finished sixth last season under the management of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick and haven’t won any silverware for five years. Ten Hag is intent on turning around the sinking club but has so far been unable to implement his philosophy on the squad.
The Dutchman attempted to make his mark in the wake of the Brentford defeat by cancelling the squad’s planned day off on Sunday. Instead of spending time with their families, United’s players were called back into Carrington to complete running drills in 30-degree heat after analysis showed they had been significantly out-run by their opponents the day before.
As well as making his players run 13.8km each – the exact difference between Brentford’s total distance run and United’s – Ten Hag also called them in for a frank team meeting. According to The Sun, Ten Hag told them to stop feeling sorry for themselves in a brutal speech which also called on the squad to start showing some fight and belief.
The Dutchman described the Brentford performance as an “embarrassment” at half-time and demanded a response after the break. He made a triple-substitution at half-time but saw no fightback as Brentford held onto their four-goal lead comfortably.
The Athletic reported that United’s coaching staff were ‘embarrassed’ by statistics that showed United’s players ran a total distance of 95.6km in the match, compared to Brentford’s 109.4km. That is why, after returning home around 11pm on Saturday evening, the players were called into Carrington for 9am the following day to run on their match-heavy legs.
Ten Hag was downbeat in his post-match press duties on Saturday. "We've all seen the game. I think Brentford were more hungry, and we conceded goals from individual mistakes,” he admitted. “You can have a good plan, but then you have to put the plan in the bin. The first two goals is about dealing with the ball, and decisions."
He added: "We have to question their desire, and we will do it in the coming hours. But we are together, and we are clearly in a really difficult situation, but we stick together and we have to find resources and solutions. They follow my instructions, but they make bad decisions. This is football, it is a game of mistakes and you get punished."
United will face another test next week when they take on Liverpool at Old Trafford on Monday. Jurgen Klopp’s side have drawn both of their opening Premier League matches, but left Old Trafford with a 5-0 win in the fixture last season.
