In a preseason friendly in South Carolina on Saturday night, Manchester United was defeated 3-0 by Liverpool, leaving Erik ten Hag unhappy with his team’s defense and some fitness issues.
Arne Slot and his team’s victory was morally encouraging with to goals from Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones, and Kostas Tsimikas. However, Manchester United will be feeling a bit down heading into their Community Shield match against Manchester City the following weekend.
Ten Hag acknowledged that there were some encouraging aspects of the performance, but he also acknowledged that he was not pleased with how easy Liverpool scored.
‘There were mixed feelings,’ Ten Hag said. ‘I think I have seen positive bits, but the way we concede goals, we are, of course, not happy with it. Of course, Liverpool are a very good side. They are very aggressive, and they have lots of goalscoring abilities, so they did very well. But the way we conceded, we are not happy with it.
‘As I said, I think there were good bits, and the first goal is always very important. I thought Liverpool played very well, but they were also very efficient.’
There were also fitness concerns for the Dutchman, as he addressed worries over Victor Lindelof, Jonny Evans and Will Fish following the game.
‘Always, we have to see what’s going on, the assessment,’ said the Red Devils boss. ‘With Will Fish, it’s an impact injury, but we also had to sub at half-time, Jonny Evans, because he was ill. Victor Lindelof was a precaution. So yeah, there are some injuries, but we have to see how bad it will be.’
Ten Hag did not sound overly worried about the result, pleased with the work that has been put in on the US tour and now focussing on meeting Manchester City at Wembley.
‘The group and staff, everyone has done a great job,’ he said. ‘It’s always tough at the end of such a tour, but we are really pleased with all the effort they put in. We came together, we worked on our game model, and now we have to fly back and we have to recover, because it’s tough.
‘Especially the last days, and then such a tough game at the end, but you learn a lot about your team. Now we have to recover, and then go to prepare the next game, and it is a big game.’
Reds manager Slot acknowledged that the result could have been much different but was nonetheless happy with the way his team performed. “We are extremely pleased with the outcome; we scored some really good goals,” he remarked.
But because United was threatening us frequently, I don’t think we had enough control over the game. Even though we won 3-0, the result could have been different tonight.