Ten Hag fury after United fire blanks
ERIK TEN HAG branded Manchester United’s failure to score in their defeat to Atletico Madrid ‘unacceptable’ — as Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up his comeback yesterday.
The Portuguese star posted a picture training with United’s youngsters at Carrington alongside the caption ‘working in progress’, as Ten Hag’s team were losing 1-0 to Atletico in Oslo, a match in which Fred was sent off after a stamp.
Despite only training for a few days, Ronaldo will be involved in United’s final friendly today at home to Rayo Vallecano. ‘We’ll see how long he can play,’ said Ten Hag.
He missed the start of pre-season and tours of Thailand and Australia for family reasons after telling United he wants to leave, although the club have resisted attempts to engineer a move.
Ronaldo is still three weeks from full fitness, but the 37-yearold is clearly keen to return after declaring in another post: ‘Sunday, the king plays.’
Anthony Martial was expected to lead the United attack when their season kicks off against Brighton at Old Trafford next Sunday, after scoring three goals on tour.
But the Frenchman was at the centre of an injury scare at the Ullevaal Stadion yesterday when he went off holding a hamstring.
Martial appeared to be moving freely as United flew home straight after the game and Ten Hag will hope it is not serious.
The United boss has options but Ronaldo could come into the reckoning if he plays today. Martial and Marcus Rashford had clear chances but the best fell to Harry Maguire, who somehow put a free header wide from Christian Eriksen’s corner.
‘You have to take benefit if you create chances,’ said Ten Hag. ‘They created less chances and scored one, so from that point I am not satisfied. I have told the team it is not acceptable.
‘We learned something, but in the end it’s about the result and the score was not good.’
Eriksen was the big plus as he came on for Martial to debut and created several chances. But Joao Felix struck in the 87th minute.
United then had Fred sent off for a second bookable offence after he appeared to plant his studs into Alvaro Morata.
Referee Espen Eskas showed seven yellow cards, including to Scott McTominay and Jan Oblak after a 20-man melee when Atletico reacted furiously to the United midfielder barging their goalkeeper to the ground.
It was a feisty affair and Ten Hag said: ‘I saw some tackles that were maybe over the limit. I like competitive but I don’t want injuries.’
On the subject of Ronaldo, Ten Hag added: ‘Tomorrow he will be in the squad. We’ll see how long he can play.’