Erik ten Hag blasts lack of ‘ardour’ from Man Utd players in Sevilla defeat

Manchester United supervisor Erik ten Hag bluntly questioned a lack of ‘passion’ and ‘desire’ from his staff in their Europa League defeat by the hands of Sevilla on Thursday evening.

United, having already thrown away a 2-0 lead late in the primary leg as a result of of two personal objectives, made a disastrous begin when Youssef En-Nesyri capitalised on a poor cross from David de Gea to Harry Maguire below strain. Loic Bade scored Sevilla’s second at a nook, earlier than En-Nesyri was gifted his second and Sevilla’s third by a catastrophic mis-control from De Gea miles from purpose.

But throughout the 90 minutes on the hostile Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, United barely even turned up.

“It’s clear. When you make such mistakes, it’s very difficult to win a football game,” Ten Hag said as he spoke to BT Sport afterwards.

“We have to do better, that’s the demand. We were not composed, not calm. We didn’t beat the press, when you do there are so many spaces behind, and it was obvious at the start how to do it.

“We lost the battles, they had more passion, more desire, more willingness, that’s difficult to win games. We can’t run away from it. On Sunday [against Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final], we have another opportunity and have to step up and show more character and personality.”

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United were without Bruno Fernandes due to suspension, with preferred starting centre-backs Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane sidelined through injury.

“It’s not about [the players who were missing], it is concerning the players on the pitch,” Ten Hag stated. “They need to carry out. I consider in them and belief them, however they’ve to indicate it they usually weren’t adequate.

“We have shown on so many occasions good things but we weren’t ready for the game. At this level, playing for Manchester United, you have to be ready for every game.

“This was an awesome alternative, an awesome event, to win one thing and we gave it away – we now have accountable ourselves. It’s gone, we will not change it. We need to stay up for Sunday, that is the subsequent alternative.”