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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag was unrepentant when facing the press after a disappointing 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace this evening.
First of all, he was asked questions about whether he believes he is making progress with his United side.
“For sure in football, it’s a long way to go,” he answered.
“When you play the quality we now deliver, the goals will come, the points will come.
“It’s so different because now we can work on the team. We can build structures because we have the players on the training pitch and we can also bring out some consistency in selection and that helps of course to bring the patterns in and routines in, and then you play better and you take more control of the game and you even, as we did the first half, dominate the game.
The next question was to query his choice of substitutes. The reporter said it caused the game to peter out in an attacking sense and asked Ten Hag what he had hoped for. His answer was somewhat evasive.
“For sure you hope they have an impact,” he said.
“They come on fresh from the bench and the opponent is tired. But that is the approach of the opponent also, they changed the second half, they were much more aggressive, also tactical they closed much better especially the second part of the second half, they closed much better the midfield areas…
“They had some good chances in counter attacks.”
Ten Hag was then asked why he decided to leave Marcus Rashford on the bench. The reporter received a very bristly response.
“Already the speculation, some pundits, I would also say you are not OK as a person when you bring such speculation when you don’t know what’s on, this is just rotation,” the manager responded.
“We have many games to cover. We can only start 11 players, but we have to give all the players, if they perform, we will give them their chances. And finally we’ll find out of course the players who play better will play more.
“But this is nothing to do, I’m very happy with Marcus with everything he do, his defensive part, his offensive, he scores in this moment, so he performs very good. So nothing to do with it that he’s on the bench, it’s just rotation.”
Asked about the squandered chances in the first half, he became defensive of his other wingers, saying:
“Ah I have to say Amad is playing very good, Garnacho almost all the games so far apart from maybe Liverpool. He has end product, and so also we have to play them as well.”
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