Erik ten Hag remains confident in his Manchester United squad despite a shockingly poor performance on the European stage last night.
The Red Devils crashed out of the Europa League at the quarter-finals stage after being favourites to win the competition for several months.
The players offered little to no fight or ambition and were truly embarrassed by their Spanish opponents, who simply wanted it more.
Whilst some of the blame can go down to defensive errors and several key players missing, the squad was still dominated by regular starters and was even boosted by the return of Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw and Marcel Sabitzer.
United will now turn their attention to securing top four in the Premier League, with the title well and truly out of their reach, as well as more silverware in the form of the FA Cup; they’ll travel to Wembley this weekend to take on an in-form Brighton and Hove Albion in the semi-finals.
Ten Hag on the reaction he needs from his players
Ten Hag has outlined what he needs to see from his players and how they must recover from last night’s affairs.
He said (via the Man Utd website): “I think it will be easy [to recover], I think everyone as a footballer has had a bad day and the next day will change. It’s really just the mentality has to change, we know it’s going to be a completely different opponent, a completely different style, so I think from tomorrow, it will be focus on Brighton.
“We know that [it is a huge game] and that is what we just told [the players] in the dressing room. We know what to do and we need a huge step forward, higher standards, and a better performance to beat Brighton because that’s a tough team. It must give energy, that’s absolutely clear. But then we need a different performance as we did today.”
