Every word from Erik ten Hag’s final press conference as Manchester United manager

Erik ten Hag conducted his final press conference as Manchester United manager on Sunday evening before he was sacked the following morning.

Manchester United confirmed on Monday morning that they had parted ways with Erik ten Hag as manager after just over two years in the role.

The Dutch boss had started his third season in charge poorly, leaving United 14th in the Premier League and 21st in the Europa League standings.

He conducted his final press conference, previewing the upcoming Carabao Cup clash against Leicester City, following that defeat against The Hammers.

While the club decided against uploading the footage, independent YouTube account BeanymanSports has posted the 54-year-old’s final press conference as manager.

Every word from Ten Hag can be read below.

Every word from Ten Hag’s final Man Utd press conference

Do you expect any players to come back from injury to face Leicester City?

“No, I don’t think so.”

Luke Shaw was originally set to come back in September, has he had setbacks?

“The process is not going as we expected, that’s the truth. The setback, if you want to call it like this, yes. But we want also to do it very careful. When he is now dropping again, we run the wrong process, we want to be very careful. We know his past, we have to do this right, because we want him to be available, because he will have a big impact on our performances and also on our levels. We can’t have him playing for some games and then drop out again. So, we will do it very carefully.”

If you win a trophy in the third season, does that make the season a success?

“Definitely. It is about trophies, I don’t want to go into this debate again. It’s the truth that there are not so many trophies you can win, if you win a trophy in top football, that is the most important, that is what the fans expect, and what we expect – to win a trophy. We have had five opportunities and one we missed, that was the Community Shield. There are still four to go.”

You said Manuel Ugarte is developing but you want him to build parts of the game model. What are you looking for your midfielders to do?

“My midfielders, I have different types. The holding midfielders, the box to box, the 10s, most of the time we have four midfielders there. We rotate them. Specifically for Manuel Ugarte, most of the time he will be playing the holding midfielder position and what we expect from him has already been said. Holding, but also linking and building the attack. Making the links into attack and it is very important that he is the rest defence and defensive transition. I think every player can do better but I was very happy with his performance in Fenerbahce, I think that was definitely a step forward.”

How do you think the players will respond to this setback?

“First of all, we have to do better, that is the ranking. But I will tell them the ranking is not reflecting our performances and our levels. But at the end of the season we have to get this right. It is not easy when you have so many setbacks at the start of the season and to overcome this, but we have to fight back. It will always help when you have a good start because that gives motivation, gives belief, the confidence will grow. We are now in the process on the other side where we are disappointed and we have to deal with setbacks and now we have to find the fuel from setbacks and disappointments.”

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