Under-fire Erik ten Hag insists Manchester United should not “panic” and are still on track to “make a success of the season”.
Three defeats from their first six games of the new campaign - including back-to-back 3-0 home losses to Liverpool and Tottenham - have left the Red Devils sitting down in 13th place in the Premier League table, with huge pressure building on the manager once again ahead of tough away trips to Porto in the Europa League on Thursday and Aston Villa on Sunday.
United recorded their worst-ever finish of the Premier League era - eighth - last season on Ten Hag’s watch, and plenty feel it is time for the club’s hierarchy to consider replacing him as head coach following a summer of uncertainty over his position that eventually ended with a contract extension.
But the Dutchman believes United must stick to their plan and insists he can turn around their shoddy start to the season.
“We are going to make a success from the season,” Ten Hag told Sky Sports. “Nothing is easy, but this is nothing for me to panic about. We can sort [the problems] out; this team can sort this out.”
Ten Hag was asked whether he should keep his job if his team suffer further poor results against Porto and Villa this week.
“I'm not thinking about it,” he replied. “I'm not anxious. We created a togetherness in the summer with the ownership and the leadership.
“We made this agreement, and we were all behind it. We know the strategy [is to bring in] young players in a transition period.
“They also know in May in all my last six seasons there were always trophies and that is what we are aiming for.”
Ten Hag delivered silverware in his first season at Old Trafford in the form of the Carabao Cup, before winning the FA Cup last season despite the club’s league form almost costing him his job.
“If you lose your faith, you lose everything,” he added. “We have to keep going and stick to the plan.
We have to keep going and stick to the plan
“For a long period, we are in transition at Manchester United. From the moment I came in, we knew we had to change. We had to replace some older players.
“Our choice was to bring young players in and that takes time to get the messages on board, to get a game model on board and to introduce a new culture. That takes time.
“In the meantime, you have to win and I think we have proven in the last two years that we win. I've proven in my career that always I will win. The last six years, I have eight trophies.”
