Erik ten Hag hits back at Jamie Carragher for criticism of Man Utd's tactics

Erik ten Hag has hit back at Jamie Carragher's criticism of Manchester United's tactical setup during their defeat to Fulham.

Fulham ended Man Utd's run of four wins on the bounce on Saturday, scoring a 97th-minute winner at Old Trafford to earn a 2-1 victory.

While the loss was the Red Devils' first in February, it was their 14th in all competitions throughout the 2023/24 season, and led to a number of rather worrying statistics about the club's form going viral - the most notable of which was only Sheffield United have conceded more shots than United's 435 in the Premier League so far this season.

Analysing Man Utd's defensive woes during Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, ex-Liverpool defender Carragher highlighted the distance between the club's defence and midfield as being a key reason for the volume of chances created by opposition teams.

Asked to respond to Carragher's comments, Ten Hag said: "First of all, some analysts are very objective in their comments. Very good advice, some are very subjective. Jamie Carragher from the first moment on has criticised and now he wants to make his point.

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"Probably in the first half an hour, yeah, he had a point. Fulham in their midfield set up surprised us a little bit and then we have to find the solutions. After half an hour we found the solutions.

"I was not pleased with the performance with the defending, especially on the left side, how we did the pressing because they came out, especially in the first half an hour. Several times on the left side and that can't happen and that has to do with willingness, spirit, passion. That was in the previous weeks very good for this team and therefore, we won football games.

"I know footballers are not robots, sometimes they have bad, days. But it can't be, it's unacceptable, we have to do better tomorrow but in the weeks before we have done very well."

Ten Hag's side will be aiming to keep just their second clean sheet of 2024 when they face off against Nottingham in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday evening.

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