Erik ten Hag accepts top-four fate as Man Utd players urged to unleash anger on Liverpool
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Erik ten Hag has warned Liverpool that his Manchester United players will use their anger from a nightmare five days in west London to bounce back in Sunday’s crunch Premier League clash. The Red Devils’ manager admits that it will now be difficult to qualify for the Champions League after dropping five points in stoppage time in two consecutive games. United have left themselves with it all to do with eight league matches remaining, trailing fourth-place Aston Villa by 11 points and sitting nine behind Tottenham Hotspur in fifth. Ten Hag’s side were woeful against Brentford last Saturday but looked to have sealed a smash-and-grab win through Mason Mount’s 96th-minute goal.
Kristoffer Ajer equalised three minutes later to rescue a point for the hosts. Alejandro Garnacho’s brace and Bruno Fernandes’ header completed a 3-2 comeback at Chelsea on Thursday. However, Cole Palmer completed his hat-trick with 100th and 101st-minute goals to steal a 4-3 win. Liverpool return to Old Trafford this weekend with a vengeance after United earned a last-gasp 4-3 triumph of their own in March’s FA Cup quarter-final.
Ten Hag insists his players will use the energy from their recent frustrations to try and replicate their success against Jurgen Klopp’s league leaders. Ten Hag explained at Stamford Bridge, “We have to recover very quickly. We have to turn this around, so from tomorrow on, we will be in a positive mood, looking forward. We have to take energy.
We will be mad, angry, and you can take a lot of energy from that, and that is the way we have to do it.” Reflecting on the last week in the capital, Ten Hag accepted that his side made expensive late mistakes and insisted he understands time to break into the top four or five is running thin. He added, “In stoppage time this week, we’ve dropped five points, so it’s very expensive. The points are getting more expensive because the games are running out, and we know that.
We have to catch up, and we are now many points behind, so it will be difficult.
