Erik ten Hag was so mad at his Manchester United players after their 4-0 loss to Brentford, he canceled their day off and ordered the team to report to training on Sunday.
The Red Devils were blown away in 35 hectic first half minutes in west London on Saturday, with a blunder by David de Gea giving the hosts a 1-0 lead before Christian Eriksen flocked into his own penalty area as Brentford doubled their lead.
Summer signing Lisandro Martinez was then easily knocked out by Ben Mee from a corner before a slick counterattack gave Brentford a fourth shot via Bryan Mbeumo.
Ten Hag made three substitutions during halftime and admitted afterwards that each of the eleven players who started could have been dragged away, with the Dutchman furious at his team’s lack of struggle and cohesion.
According to The timesTen Hag tore his players in the locker room after the game in a furious tirade ‘in’ his players before canceling their planned day off.
The squad did not return to Manchester until late on Saturday night, but were sent to Carrington for extra training on Sunday, with their manager arriving early in the morning to process the performance.
A defeat to Brentford means Ten Hag is the first United manager to lose his first two games since John Chapman in 1921, while the Red Devils are bottom of the table for that time in 30 years.
On the result afterwards, the former Ajax boss said: ‘I think we all saw the game and I think Brentford was hungrier, one, and conceded two goals in individual errors.
“You can have a good plan, but we had to throw it in the trash.
“I think it had nothing to do with tactical and that the first two goals, it’s about handling the ball, that’s one, and decisions. I think they follow my instructions, but they make bad decisions and that’s football, it’s a game of mistakes and you get punished.”
He continued: ‘I don’t want to play from behind if that’s not possible. It was naive how we played today. You have to play more directly.
“We had them on, the space was high up on the field. Then you have to choose that option and we didn’t do that. We must learn. Obviously, at this level, this is not the norm we want to act on.
‘I won’t admit that’ [they can’t play this way]. They already showed that in the preseason, this has nothing to do with that. It’s about when you make the mistakes you make tonight, every plan and strategy you can throw in the trash.”
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