Manchester United ease pressure on Erik ten Hag with win over Brentford

MANCHESTER – Manchester United eased a bit of the pressure on their embattled manager Erik ten Hag with a 2-1 come-from-behind English Premier League victory over Brentford at Old Trafford on Oct 19.

The Red Devils had come into the match in 14th place on eight points with just two wins from seven games – their worst start to a campaign since 1989-90.

Reports had suggested the United hierarchy – including co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive officer Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox – had a long meeting earlier in the week, with ten Hag’s future on the agenda.

In the pre-match press conference on Oct 19, the Dutch manager accused segments of the media of “creating stories, creating fairy tales, bringing noise, bringing lies” regarding his future.

But things looked iffy for him again when Brentford opened the scoring in the fifth minute of first-half added time, when centre-back Ethan Pinnock lost marker Diogo Dalot and powered in a ferocious header past Andre Onana from a Mikkel Damsgaard corner.

Ten Hag and Matthijs de Ligt remonstrated with the touchline officials after the defender was made to leave the field before the set piece as blood was oozing out of his head. He had suffered the injury in a coming together with Kevin Schade after 10 minutes.

Said ten Hag: “It didn’t change anything, it was dry blood, so nobody from us understood why he was taken off. I went to Matthijs, he didn’t understand. Brentford is very good in corners, then of course you are disappointed...

“Pressure is always there, we have to win every game. When you are 1-0 down, we felt some injustice and used it as fuel. Definitely we were mad, we were angered. We had the idea it was not perfect, but we controlled the game.”

Ten Hag and his assistant Ruud van Nistelrooy were booked for their protestations.

But, when all was said and done, it marked the seventh time United had failed to score in the first half in eight Premier League matches this season.

The Red Devils’ best chances in the first period had fallen to Alejandro Garnacho.

Once, he forced a near-post save by Mark Flekken, but with his two other opportunities, more could be expected from the Argentinian winger when he was picked out by a lovely cross-field pass from Marcus Rashford and some good hold-up play from Rasmus Hojlund.

But the 20-year-old Garnacho remained confident and, two minutes after the break, he finally found the net to register his second league goal of the campaign.

Rashford produced another excellent delivery for his fellow winger, this time his deep cross found Garnacho at the back post and he responded with a first-time side-footed volley into goal.

On Garnacho, ten Hag said: “I know what he is capable of, that’s why I play him so often. He is a threat and has scoring abilities but also a threat in one-v-ones. The end product is what we need and missed in the first games.”

It marked the start of a second-half resurgence from the Red Devils, who kept Dutch custodian Flekken very busy.

But he could not deny United their second. United captain Bruno Fernandes played a neat round-the-corner flick to Hojlund, who dinked the ball over Flekken and into goal on 62 minutes.

It was his second goal in three starts this term, after missing the start of the campaign with a hamstring injury picked up in pre-season.

United could have gone 3-1 up six minutes later, when Onana’s goal kick found an overlapping Dalot bearing down on goal, but Flekken managed to foil him.

But in the end, the Red Devils did not need the cushion of another goal as they got their first win in six matches.