Erik ten Hag has called on Manchester United to “stick together” following Saturday’s defeat to West Ham – but admits his side are not performing to their level at the moment.
Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus found the net within six minutes of each other in the second half to put the Red Devils to the sword at the London Stadium.
The result condemned Man United to their 13th defeat of the season in all competitions, the most they have incurred in a single campaign before Christmas since 1930.
Despite failing to find the net for the fourth game in a row, Ten Hag argued that United should have been the ones to open the scoring in the game.
“I think it was a decent 72 minutes where we didn’t take our chances,” he told BBC Match of the Day. “We should’ve gone in the lead but we didn’t and then it was one moment of switching off.”
Man United have still not beaten a side in the top nine of the Premier League away from home since Ten Hag took over.
“At this moment we are not top, but we have seen last week against the top of this league we were head-to-head,” he said.
“We didn’t score, we had the best opportunities of the game. There we defended very well for 90 minutes, that has to be always our standard like what we did there. You have to bring that to every game on the pitch.”
Asked what he could change from this year going into 2024, Ten Hag answered: “In 2023, we won a Cup, we played the FA Cup final, we were third in the league. There were highlights but we are over-performing, but in this moment we are underperforming.
“There are reasons for it, we have many injuries, so the team will be better if the injured ones return. We have to be calm, stick together, stick to the plan, we have to do it together.”
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