UCL: Ten Hag Looking to Harness Hostile Atmosphere for United Against Galatasaray

Ahead of Manchester United’s must-win clash against Galatasaray later today at Instanbul, Erik Ten Hag is banking on the hostile environment to be in his team’s favour.

Ten Hag’s red and white army lost against the Turkish giants by a whisker in their first leg at Old Trafford, with their subsequent results condemning them to the 4th position in the group, and on the verge of a Champions League group stage elimination, should they suffer a loss today.

Prepared to see to that, Galatasaray’s fans are set to make the 52, 600 capacity Rams Park stadium a hell for the visitors, with reports confirming that there’ll be no phones allowed in the stands when the game is being played, and it’s going to be maximum concentrated aggressive outing from the home fans.

🟡🔴 For the crucial match vs Manchester United tonight, Galatasaray's ultra group have sent out a message to fans…

There is absolutely no social media/phones allowed in the stands when the game is being played.

"90 minutes of aggressive support. Go to war with the team!" 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/tscYwVhexP

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) November 29, 2023

Ten Hag in his presser however believes his side has what it takes to deal with the environment and make the important game theirs.

“We have to do similar[like we did against Everton] but to get the energy for it. But of course again in a different environment, with even more noise. We have to deal with that environment, with the situation, and to make it our game,” the gaffer said.

“And it’s exactly like this. So you have to take the environment and rise even more to the occasion, and to take that as fuel to go into that game and to win.

Ten Hag on his Available Firepower

Marcus Rashford might have been handed a boost in confidence in their last win against Everton, but the Englishman won’t be featuring in tonight’s game, as he’ll be observing a one-match suspension for the red card he picked against Copenhagen last time out.

Reacting to this and the availability of other players at this disposal, his manager said: “We need that with our condensed schedule. You need a lot of players.

“It’s about [the] squad. It’s not about only 11 players and some players sometimes they need patience and that’s difficult also because actually they deserve to play because they are doing so well. But it’s about a balance.

“You don’t want to swap too much. You want to use players and to believe in all the players and to give confidence to all the players, but we also have to work on routines.”

The race for the second position in Group A might be sealed later today, as first-placed Bayern Munich is set for a dead rubber tie against third-place Copenhagen who equally has it all to fight for—which might lead the fight for the spot to the wire!