No reason for Erik ten Hag to ‘panic’ despite mounting pressure on Manchester United manager

OPORTO – Erik ten Hag insisted there was no reason for him to “panic”, despite his position as Manchester United manager coming under increased scrutiny after a difficult start to the season.

The record 20-time English champions are off to their joint-worst start in the English Premier League era, collecting just seven points from six games while scoring a mere five goals.

United also began their Europa League campaign in worrying fashion, drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford last week with ten Hag’s former club FC Twente, a result midfielder Christian Eriksen said “feels like a loss”.

It extended United’s poor run in Europe to one win in nine games after last season’s disastrous Champions League display. They have a chance to improve that record when they take on Porto at the Estadio do Dragao in their second Europa League outing on Oct 3.

Ten Hag again pleaded for more time to turn the club’s fortunes around after the 3-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Sept 29, but the Dutchman admitted his team were far below the standards expected.

In an interview with Sky Sports on Oct 2, the Dutchman said: “This is nothing for me to panic about because I experience it so often with my teams during seasons, that you are facing those problems.

“This team can sort this out and when it’s in the individual area, we can sort those problems out...

“The most important is always keeping the belief. You stay in the game by keeping the belief. If you lose your faith, you lose everything.

“We have to keep going and stick to the plan and move on.”

Ten Hag said United have been in transition since his 2022 arrival in Manchester but maintained that the team had “good potential”.

He said: “We are in transition at Manchester United. From the moment I came in, we knew we had to change. We had to replace some older players and bring new players in.

“Our choice was to bring young players in and you know that takes time to get the messages on board, to get a game model on board and to introduce a new culture that takes time. In the meantime, you have to win and I think we have proven in the last two years, we win. 

“We have to embed the game model, we have to embed a stronger team as we have now and so we have to work on our problems and give the solutions. We have a good potential on players, so once it’s embedded, we will go and we will drive, and I’m sure we will achieve the targets we have set for this season.”

He elaborated that those targets are “always winning trophies and finishing as high as possible” in the Premier League.

Ten Hag received a boost on Oct 1 as captain Bruno Fernandes escaped a three-match suspension after his red card against Tottenham was overturned.

The Portugal midfielder was sent off for a high tackle on James Maddison. United appealed against the decision and the English Football Association has upheld a claim of wrongful dismissal.

Fernandes said of Porto: “They are a side that always do really well in Europe. They are a team that have a great spirit, (are) improving a lot in the last few games, even if they lost the last game in the Europa League (3-2 to Bodo/Glimt).”

The team that ignited the latest round of turmoil at United are also in action on Oct 3 in the Europa League, with Spurs away to Hungarian side Ferencvaros. Tottenham are hoping to build on their 3-0 win over Qarabag in the previous round.

Also in action are England’s Europa Conference League representatives Chelsea.

Manager Enzo Maresca says he is working hard to keep the players in his huge squad happy but the “feeling is good” ahead of their clash with Gent on Oct 3.

The 44-year-old Italian, in his first season at Stamford Bridge, has won his past four games in all competitions, with Chelsea climbing to fourth in the Premier League table.

But the club’s large squad means big-name players including Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix, Pedro Neto and Mykhailo Mudryk are short of match time.

“We try to share minutes with all of them,” Maresca said on Oct 2.

“In this moment, probably, it looks like we have players that are playing in the Premier League and players playing in the Cups – Conference, Carabao (League Cup) or FA Cup.

“It’s not like this, in general it won’t be like this. We try to give them the opportunity.”

Despite that, star attacker Cole Palmer, midfielder Romeo Lavia and defender Wesley Fofana have been left out of Chelsea’s squad for Europe’s third-tier club competition to manage their workloads. AFP