“The goals really were giveaways”: Erik Ten Hag on Manchester United’s defeat against Dortmund

Nevada [US], July 31 (ANI): Manchester United head coach Erik Ten Hag didn’t hold back while talking about the performance of their team which cost them three goals as well as the game against Borussia Dortmund on Monday at the Allegiant Stadium.

Defensive lapses led to the downfall of the Red Devils as they lost a thriller 3-2. Dortmund didn’t hesitate to capitalize on the errors made by Manchester United’s defensive line-up.
After the match, Erik Ten Hag gave his take on the match and said to MUTV, “Two parts – first hour [was] good, well-performing, playing as a team, lot of dynamic, good pressing, so it was really enjoyable to see. That is what I wanted to say to the team at half-time and then all of a sudden they gave two goals away and they really were giveaways. So that was already annoying but the last half an hour was bad, was a poor performance. Didn’t follow the rules at all, not in pressing, not in building up and not in attacking, so there were 11 individuals finally on the pitch and that wasn’t good at all.”

Even though the results of the last couple of games didn’t go the way of the Red Devils. They lost against Real Madrid and Wrexham, but, Ten Hag believes that overall the US pre-season tour has been beneficial for their team.

“I think so [the tour has been useful for the team]. The same I said to the team, I think it was a good tour but you want to finish with a good performance and you see only 60 minutes where I was pleased with but not with the goals we conceded because they were really poor. The first one was really poor defending and the second one really poor in building up and that is not us. We have to keep the control and you have to keep the responsibility on the ball and it was the same on the 3-2 for Dortmund, so [it] can’t happen and it’s unforgivable even if it’s a friendly,” Ten Hag added.

Coming to the match, the Portuguese defender Diogo Dalot marked his comeback to the team with an exceptional curling effort in the 24th minute of the game.

Dortmund scored two quick goals moments before half-time putting United on the back foot. Young defender Brandon Williams got turned around quite easily and Donyell Malen scored from a close range to bring the game back on level terms.

18 seconds later after the resumption of the game, Victor Lindelof gave away a pass to former United teammate Marcel Sabitzer, who in turn passed the ball to Malen to assist him for his second goal of the night.

The Red Devils responded with Antony to bring parity as defender Mats Hummels gave the ball away inside his own penalty area to allow Antony to score an easy goal.

English right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka gave away the ball to Marco Reus, who found the young striker Moukoko to seal the game.

Manchester United will face Ligue 1 side Lens on Saturday ahead of their first game of the Premier League 2023/24 campaign.