Erik ten Hag fires back at Carragher over scathing criticism of Man Utd tactics
Erik ten Hag has hit back at Jamie Carragher for his scathing criticism of Manchester United's defensive approach.
Carragher, in his role as a Sky pundit, ripped apart United's defensive mindset following Saturday's 2-1 defeat at home to Fulham, their 10th in the Premier League this season. Former Liverpool star Carragher said he had never seen a side defend like United before, but Ten Hag claimed the former defender had an agenda against United.
Ten Hag hit back and said: “First of all, some analysts are very objective in their comments, very good advice, some are very subjective. Jamie Carragher, from the first moment on has criticised, and now he wants to make his point.
“Probably in the first half an hour, yeah, he had a point. Fulham, in their midfield set up, was a little bit surprising and then we have to find the solutions.
“After half an hour, we found the solutions, but I was not pleased with the performance with the defending, especially on the left side. They came out, especially in the first half an hour, several times on the left side, and that can't happen.
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”That has to do with willingness, spirit, passion and that was, in the previous weeks, very good for this team and therefore, we won football games. I know footballers are not robots, sometimes they have bad, days. But it can't be, it's unacceptable, we have to do better tomorrow but in the weeks before we have done very well.
“It can't happen when they have a throw-in in the corner [ that they go on and score]. How we managed it as a team was not good.”
Erik ten Hag after Manchester United's defeat against Fulham (Getty Images)
Manchester United were beaten by Fulham at the weekend (Getty Images)Speaking on Monday Night Football, Carragher said: “I want to highlight (Kobbie) Mainoo, who has been fantastic since he came in, but the problem I have - it's not a criticism of him - what are his instructions before the game?
"This is straight from kick-off, he is not sure whether he should close down the holding midfield player or looking at the number 10, he's caught, straight from kick-off - you should know your jobs straight from kick-off and that's down to the coaching staff.
"Twenty seconds into the game against Fulham, it's been the problem for Manchester United all season, there's space between the back four and the midfield. We go to the reason why they're poor defensively and can't cope with counter-attacks, they've got no pace at the back and a lack of legs in midfield.
"People say: 'there's no patterns of play at Manchester United, how do they play and what's the philosophy?' I'll tell you why there's no patterns of play and why they get done on the counter-attack, the positions they find themselves in. When Varane is on the ball, you've got your right-back, he can't receive a pass, Mainoo - your central midfield player - he's on the last line, that can't be right - it's not right.
"Bruno Fernandes, on the last line, playing like a striker, he's a number 10, Victor Lindelof can't receive the ball, the players can't receive the ball in the positions they pick. There's a massive problem for Manchester United when they're on the ball - how many times do you see players running back 40 yards towards goal."
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