"My goodness..." - Richard Keys slams Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag over interview comments
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Richard Keys has slammed Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag over comments he made in a recent interview.
Ten Hag spoke to The Times' Henry Winter in an interview published on Monday, where topics included his first season at Old Trafford, his own playing career and Marcus Rashford's form this campaign.
The Dutchman guided United to third place in the Premier League table, and could complete a domestic cup double by defeating Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday.
But there have been low moments, with one of those occurring in just the second league game of the season. United lost 4-0 at Brentford, with all four of the Bees' goals being scored in the opening 35 minutes of the contest.
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Speaking about the match, and his half-time team talk, Ten Hag said: "Unacceptable. I hated myself.
"Ultimately, I'm responsible for that performance. It's my responsibility to put my demands and mentality in the team. Half-time, already 4-0 down, come on! What are you doing?
"I am responsible. So I hate managers [who] when they're winning, they're telling [us], 'I won the game' and when they're losing they're saying, 'The players lost the game'. No! We win together, we lose together.
"When you have pride, you can't act like we did at Brentford. I can accept you lose a game, especially in the start [of a new managerial era]. Players have to get used to the way of play, new manager, new coaching staff. So defeat can come, but not in this way.
"You saw players who just gave in. We're paid to deliver a performance and you can't deliver this."
Keys on Ten Hag
Taking to Twitter alongside a screenshot of Winter's tweet, which included Ten Hag's quote about other managers' reactions to a win or defeat, beIN Sports presenter Keys tore into the United boss.
My goodness. Really? ‘The players didn’t stick to the plan’. Or ‘the players were unprofessional’. How many times did we hear that during the season? And he couldn’t wait to find a mic when they’d won. 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/m3MA0USgCH
— Richard Keys (@richardajkeys) May 30, 2023
He wrote: "My goodness. Really? 'The players didn't stick to the plan'. Or 'the players were unprofessional'. How many times did we hear that during the season? And he couldn't wait to find a mic when they'd won."
United's players certainly reacted to the Brentford defeat, going on a run on just one loss in their next 10 Premier League matches.
And although old defensive habits threatened to creep back in on numerous occasions throughout the season, including the 7-0 thrashing at Liverpool and the 3-0 loss at Sevilla which knocked them out of the Europa League, United goalkeeper David de Gea took home the league's Golden Glove award - a surefire sign that United are at least making progress.
Featured Image Credit: Alamy / beIN Sports
Topics: Manchester United, Erik Ten Hag, Premier League
