ERIK TEN HAG has hit back at Jamie Carragher for his criticism of Manchester United – and suggested he has a bias against them.
The leading pundit took the Red Devils to pieces with his assessment of their defeat to Fulham on Sky’s Monday Night Football show.
Carragher said: “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?’. ”
But Ten Hag says the former Liverpool Champions League winner has been against United from the start and is not objective in his view points.
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Ten Hag 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.”
Yet the under-fire United boss went on to agree with some of Carragher’s assessment, particularly in how United began Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat.
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He said: “Probably in the first half an hour, yeah, he had a point.
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“The way Fulham set up their midfield was a surprise and then we have to find the solutions.
“After half an hour we found the solutions.”
But Ten Hag even admitted that his team had lacked the necessary “passion” in the first half.
He added: “I was not pleased with the performance with the defending, especially on the left side, how we did the pressing because they came out.
“Especially in the first half an hour, several times on the left side and that can’t happen and that has to do with willingness, spirit, passion.
“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.”
United take on Nottingham Forest on Wednesday in an FA Cup fifth round encounter at the City Ground.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
