In the aftermath of Manchester United’s highly dramatic penalty shootout win over Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final last weekend, it has emerged that Erik ten Hag made an executive decision to alter his side’s penalty line-up.
The two sides could not be separated after 120 minutes and as penalties loomed, it was unclear which United players would be stepping up take penalties following the withdrawal of Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Martial, who have both taken penalties this season.
Now, speaking after he scored United’s sixth penalty, striker Wout Weghorst has revealed that he originally wanted to take on earlier but was stopped by the manager.
“I wanted to take one, I wanted to take one of the first five,” Weghorst told talkSPORT.
“But the trainer decided this. But, yeah, I’m glad I could contribute to today so personally that’s a good feeling.
“It’s really good to be in the final. Of course it’s a different tournament, a different trophy [compared to the Europa League] and we’re disappointed from that. We said we wanted to win three trophies, so that was a really big disappointment.
“Today is not about the Europa League. It’s about the FA Cup, and for us to stay in this tournament and have the opportunity to get another trophy.
“That’s what we did.”
That decision may go down as a masterstroke by Ten Hag as Weghorst calmly found the net with his penalty just seconds before putting Brighton star Solly March off.
March was the recipient of some carefully chosen mind games from Weghorst and moments later, the winger blazed his penalty over the bar and Lindelof was handed the chance to secure another trip to Wembley.
