Erik Ten Hag express honest opinion after Manchester United’s loss to Chelsea

Erik ten Hag, Manchester United boss believes his team were “brilliant” at periods during their “unacceptable” defeat to Chelsea. Despite a heroic effort to recover from a 2-0 deficit and take a 3-2 lead, the Red Devils were eventually defeated by a late push from Chelsea, with Cole Palmer’s hat-trick sealing a miraculous triumph for the Blues.

Nonetheless, their Dutch manager felt that his team deserved to win, but he bemoaned their inability to effectively control the game, which cost them three points while leading 3-2 until the 99th minute.

Speaking to TNT Sports after the match, Ten Hag said: “Yes we started poor, kicking the ball away and defending poorly. But you saw we were dominating the game and it was brilliant how we played – we deserved to win the game. But, you cannot give it away like we did and we have to manage this game better. It is a team performance, you can point to one of the players but it is about team performance.”

“When it gets chaotic you have to deal with it as a team and we made the wrong decisions and we didn’t help out as a team. Out of possession, we made a bad decision – a lack of concentration. Also, I think (un) lucky at the end with the penalty situation, questionable and very soft but we have to do better.”

Chelsea fired a remarkable 28 shots on target exposing United’s defensive flaws. This continued a troubling pattern, as they have conceded 20 or more shots in seven of their previous eight Premier League games. Their total shots conceded in 2024 now stands at 225, the most in the league. Despite these worrying figures, Ten Hag dismissed their relevance, expressing confidence in his team’s defensive abilities.

“It is ridiculous,” Ten Hag said. “We showed we were fourth ranking before this game in goals conceded. Everyone is talking to each other after, we are good and we have good defending as a team, a good goalkeeper and a good back four so I cannot do anything with such stats.”

With United’s dreams of returning to Europe’s top tier next season hanging in the balance, Ten Hag’s future at the club appears doubtful. The setback to Chelsea has put more pressure on the Dutch manager ahead of a key match against Liverpool on Sunday. United must recover and solve the obvious faults shown in their defeat before meeting their arch-rivals, who will be hungry to avenge their FA Cup setback earlier this season.