December 12th 2023.
Thomas Tuchel has expressed sympathy for Erik ten Hag in the wake of Manchester United's Champions League exit. Despite United's lack of personnel due to numerous injuries, Tuchel believes the team is still lacking in 'quality, personality and width' to make a difference.
This was evident in the 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at Old Trafford that saw United bottom of Group A, eight points behind Copenhagen in second. United were missing the likes of Marcus Rashford, Casemiro, Lisandro Martinez, Christian Eriksen and Mason Mount, while both Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw had to be substituted due to injuries.
When asked if he had sympathy for Ten Hag, Tuchel said: "Almost always I feel sympathy for the other coach. But within competition we try everything to win our matches, this is why we are and this is what it is, these are the rules of high-level sports, we play at the highest level to win our matches. Of course I have sympathy. I think he has a lot of key players injured for a decisive match now, that you can see then they lack this kind of personality and also the quality and maybe the width to change games from the bench. I think you could see that."
Tuchel then went on to comment on United's surprise finish in the group, adding: "Yeah, this is a huge club and it's of course not what you expect when you see the group, you immediately think that also Manchester United is challenging for the win of the group and for a place in the round of 16.
"But in my experience I can tell you it's a difficult group, it looks now very clear for us in terms of points, the distance we earned in the points between us and the rest but the matches were all very, very tight and the results were narrow, the opponents were difficult and different styles of play to play against. You could see in the results everything was possible today for Untied and in some of the matches it changed in a blink of an eye for them."
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