Erik ten Hag hailed ‘finest participant on the pitch’ Bruno Fernandes for his ‘character’ as Man Utd improved from what he admitted was a ‘complacency’ to beat Betis.
Fernandes was criticized much more harshly than his team-mates after United’s 7-0 thrashing at Liverpool on Sunday, with plenty of petulant moments elevating questions on his suitability for the captain’s armband.
He had been defended by Ten Hag and Marcus Rashford within the build-up to Thursday’s Europa League spherical of 16 fixture, and responded in one of the simplest ways attainable with a participant of the match efficiency at Previous Trafford by which he scored. a aim and scored one other.
“He was the perfect participant on the pitch and it confirmed his character. He performed somewhat deeper position tonight, he was sensible,” Ten Hag mentioned.
“He was a pacesetter in making deep play and controlling the tempo of play. He had a whole lot of good passes between the traces and from there we created a whole lot of possibilities.”
Ten Hag added to BT Sports activities: “He led the workforce from the primary minute together with his play, with possession, setting the tempo of the sport and scoring a aim so I am completely happy.”
United’s efficiency at Anfield final weekend was the third time they’ve collapsed within the Premier League this season, following hammer blows at Brentford and Manchester Metropolis earlier within the marketing campaign.
On every event they bounced again from adversity to win their subsequent recreation and once more confirmed their braveness to curb Betis’ rising momentum after their first-half equalizer, solely to reply with three unanswered objectives after the break .
Ten Hag revealed after beforehand expressing his frustration together with his gamers’ current performances forward of the Liverpool recreation, however the end result at Anfield laid naked what he mentioned.
He mentioned, “It isn’t about ignoring [Sunday’s game], we made errors and we received hammered for it. We now have not checked the requirements that we’ve got.
“When you might say we had been complacent, you may by no means try this in top-flight soccer. Within the weeks main as much as [the Liverpool defeat] I used to be not proud of the efficiency towards Newcastle, I used to be not completely happy towards Leicester with the efficiency within the first half.
“Typically it takes a nasty end result first to open everybody’s eyes.”
United named a formation unchanged since Anfield’s loss to Betis, and Ten Hag admitted the choice to stick with the identical workforce was motivated by providing them an opportunity to redeem themselves within the Europa League.
He mentioned: “It was, however I believed it was the perfect formation after I noticed Betis. We performed 23 video games in a row with a loss, and regardless that the 24 was an enormous loss , you’ll be able to’t ignore the earlier 22 video games the place this workforce performed very properly.”
#Erik #ten #Hag #praises #Bruno #Fernandes #character #very good #efficiency #Actual #Betis #Soccer #Information