What was said during Erik ten Hag’s row with Anthony Martial during Man Utd’s loss vs Newcastle

Erik ten Hag was visibly angry with Manchester United forward Anthony Martial during the loss against Newcastle United on Saturday evening.

The Reds were embarrassed at St James’ Park, with the scoreline flattering the visiting side.

Eddie Howe’s side dominated the game, and it was no surprise when they broke the deadlock shortly after half-time.

Whilst the in-possession game was a stark difference between the two teams, it was Newcastle’s out-of-possession work, in terms of organisation and intensity, which was stratospheres ahead of Ten Hag’s side.

One moment during the first half, when Newcastle centre-back Fabian Schär strolled past Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, led to a chance for the hosts. Shortly afterwards, Ten Hag was seen extremely animated on the sidelines.

The Dutchman was screaming at his forwards, with Martial turning and shouting back to his manager.

After the game, when asked about the incident, Ten Hag stated he was attempting to wake up his team who looked lost in the first half.

“It’s not about Anthony Martial; it’s about the team. I try to energise the team and try to get a reaction from the team in this moment,” he stated. “As you see, we had a tough period and when you’re coaching, you are a little more aggressive, so that’s normal.”

The United boss went on to admit that Newcastle were deserved winners despite highlighting United’s disallowed goal in the closing minutes of the game.

“We had a tough first half. We said at half-time, we are pleased to be at 0-0 and have to stay in the game,” he told TNT Sports. “We had a good comeback in the last part of the game, that’s the fight we have to show.

“I’ll talk to the team tomorrow about it, the regards are for Newcastle, we’ll talk about it and move on to Wednesday. In the end, we stayed in the game, had some good chances from Reguilon, thought we scored a goal which was just offside, so we could have drawn – but you have to say over all Newcastle deserved to win.”