"Please give Ten Hag time" - Kevin Pietersen makes sarcastic claim on social media after Manchester United's loss to Spurs
Former England batter Kevin Pietersen has sarcastically praised Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag following the Red Devils' heavy 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday (September 29).
Following Brennan Johnson's third-minute opener, United captain Bruno Fernandes saw red in the 42nd minute. Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke added insult to injury in the second half as Spurs ended United's four-game unbeaten run across competitions.
With the Red Devils seemingly heading for another underwhelming campaign, Pietersen claimed that Ten Hag is better than the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, pleading with the club not to sack the Dutchman:
"Please give Ten Hag time. He is a wonderful manager and has earned the right to another 2/3 seasons at least. He’s even better than Ferguson. PLEASE don’t sack him! PLEASE," Pietersen tweeted.
The defeat was United's third in six league games this season, the same number of losses they had suffered at this stage of the previous campaign.
"We have to deal with this" - Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag minced no words about his team's performance against Tottenham, but the Dutchman lamented the dismissal of Fernandes.
Admitting that it changed the course of the game, Ten Hag, though, was critical about his team's indiscipline, which eventually led to a heavy league defeat at home.
“It is a bad start of the game," Ten Hag told Sky Sports (via BBC). "Tottenham were dominant. We made many mistakes in possession that we should not make. We couldn’t pass out of the press and made wrong decisions. We had chances to come back, and then the red card changed the game.
“I don’t think it was a red card. It was only 1-0. We could have made a comeback, and it had a big impact on the game. Our first-half was no good. "
Ten Hag continued:
"It's not possible that a player can dribble through our whole team and set up a goal. You have to stop that. I made clear before the game how we have to defend it. We lost confidence. We can do better and all of the players know this."
“We were indisciplined. We were too stressed on the ball. It is always a new day. I told the players we have to learn, do things better and be better on the ball. There were situations when we could have kept the ball and found the spare man. I don’t want to talk about progress after such a defeat. We have to deal with this.”
Manchester United next take on Porto away in their second UEFA Europa League game on Thursday (October 3).