December 13th 2023.
Jamie Carragher was not convinced by Erik ten Hag's post-match assessment of Manchester United's Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich. The Red Devils needed a win against one of the tournament favourites, and a draw in the other game in Group A, to qualify for the last 16.
Unfortunately, FC Copenhagen's victory against Galatasaray saw United crash out of Europe altogether, with a 1-0 defeat leaving them bottom of the group. Ten Hag attempted to defend his team's performance, which hardly laid a glove on Bayern, by saying he was satisfied with the solitary shot on target.
Carragher said that Ten Hag was trying to put a positive spin on the situation, and that the absences of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial didn't help. Plus, Erik ten Hag and Luke Shaw both picked up injuries ahead of Sunday's daunting trip to Anfield.
The Dutchman's comments were seen as an attempt to do damage limitation ahead of the match, which United famously lost 7-0 in the corresponding fixture last season.
“I think what happens is because it's been so poor for Manchester United this season, you're playing one of the top teams in Europe, you are missing injured players,” Carragher said. “I think it's almost a case of because you haven't been beaten 3-0 or 4-0, 1-0 actually feels OK. You're in the game for an hour. He's probably watching the game thinking we're still in this and it's almost like a slight feelgood factor.”
The former Liverpool player believes Ten Hag was attempting to take something from the game in order to use it as a motivator for the upcoming match against Liverpool. “That will be the message to the players ‘you were playing one of the top teams in Europe anything could’ve happened, we’ve got to go to Anfield now and try to produce some sort of performance’. A result looks really tough on paper but I think that’s just a manager trying to clutch at straws,” he said.
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