Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been speaking to the media before Sunday’s Premier League game at home against Tottenham (16:30 BST).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
Ten Hag is not expecting any injured players to return for the visit of Spurs and anticipates having the same squad to choose from as he did against FC Twente in the Europa League on Thursday.
When asked about Christian Eriksen’s comments that Twente “wanted it more” in the 1-1 draw, he said: “I think every team has this in a season when you play 60 games. There will be games where you are not happy with the performance. The team who can manage this the most will be most successful. We are ambitious and always demand we are hungrier.”
Ten Hag sees missing chances as being key during recent poor results: “Not scoring goals, not scoring goals enough. That is the problem, the key area to score more goals as a team, we have players across the team who have the ability to score, that is clear, you see all the opportunities we are creating. We are not scoring enough.”
On how to rectify this, Ten Hag said: “You always work into a season to build in structures in defending, structures in possession, you start in the build-up. Across almost all the games we have more possession than the opponent and then it is about what you are doing. We bring the ball into the final third, even the box, a lot but now we have to take more advantage of it.”
Ten Hag believes his side are still a work in progress: “I think you have to assess the situation, still we are working, we are in progress. We have to sign players but we made a choice to sign very young players like last year [Rasmus] Hojlund, like this year [Joshua] Zirkzee, Leny Yoro. Players we believe in them for this moment and also for the future and we have to build with them.”
Asked if fans have to be patient, he said: “You have also to be fair, we won two trophies in the last two seasons and we are ambitious. We want to win another one and be as high as possible and go in every game for winning the game, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is.”
Asked if he believes Zirkzee can become a prolific goalscorer for United, Ten Hag said: “Yes, I do. He is young, we see his capabilities. He is a very good link-up player, he’s creative, he’s creating chances. But, to be fair, also he has absolutely his moments towards the goal of the opposition. In that area he can definitely improve but we knew that beforehand. He has some very good attributes and also some attributes he has to improve and there he needs our support how to improve.”
On what he expects from Spurs: “I think it will be a very intensive game. It is always against Tottenham and it is our style as well so I think it is going to be a very dynamic, attractive game.”
