Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag on Thursday expressed frustration and blamed costly mistakes and poor decisionmaking for his side conceding two stoppage-time goals against Chelsea to lose 4-3.
Ten Hag said that his team deserved to win at Stamford Bridge after rallying from a two-goal deficit with a brace from Alejandro Garnacho and a goal from Bruno Fernandes.
However, individual errors led them to defeat just a few days after his team conceded a last-gasp equalizer to Brentford in a 1-1 draw to move further away from a top-four Premier League finish.
Photo: Reuters
Manchester United now sit in sixth with 48 points.
“I had the feeling we were dominating the game, got ourselves into a winning position, scoring great goals,” Ten Hag told reporters. “Then, in stoppage-time, we didn’t manage to win. Of course it’s frustrating.”
“We made individual errors that cost us the game,” he said. “The players know their jobs and they didn’t make the right decisions. We have to read when to keep the ball, to pass, move and switch the play when we are winning.”
Photo: AP
“In five days we dropped five points. That is unacceptable. We gave away a game we should have won,” he added.
The Dutch manager said that injury absences of key players have dampened his team’s performance, but he is confident his players will step up tomorrow when they are to host leaders Liverpool, who on Thursday overcame an unexpected test of their title credentials against last-place Sheffield United.
Liverpool moved back on top after a 3-1 win against Sheffield United, with Alexis Mac Allister scoring from a stunning second-half strike to set up the victory.
Anfield erupted as the Argentina international unleashed a drive from the edge of the box that crashed into the top corner in the 76th minute.
The atmosphere had been getting increasingly tense before that with the game locked at 1-1.
Substitute Cody Gakpo added a third for Liverpool in the 90th minute to make the win look more routine than it was.
“We had to dig very deep, but that is normal. Our attitude was good, the football was not great in a lot of moments,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said.
Up until Mac Allister’s strike, it had looked like being a potentially frustrating night at Anfield after Conor Bradley’s own-goal had evened the game at 1-1 — canceling out Darwin Nunez’s opener.
Mac Allister’s long-range strike restored the lead and lifted the mood before Gakpo made it 3-1 with a header.
“Patience is the most important thing. You can get frustrated or in a bad mood, but we stayed calm and focused,” Gakpo said.
While Liverpool could be knocked off the top again by the time they play on Sunday, the Merseyside club keep on coming up with the answers as they stare down the challenge of Arsenal and Manchester City.
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