Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has responded to Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag’s criticism of his team’s analysis.
Carragher delivered a brutal tactical critique of the Reds on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
The Sky Sports pundit stated that Man United “defends like a team I’ve never seen before”.
The next day, Ten Hag launched an offensive, responding to Carragher during his news conference prior to Wednesday’s victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
The United manager complained that the former England international’s evaluation lacked objectivity.
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.
“Probably in the first half an hour, yes, 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.”
After Ten Hag criticised Carragher’s interpretation, the United manager replied vehemently, and Carragher acknowledged that he respected the manager for standing up for himself and his team.
Carragher has now reacted in his piece for The Telegraph: “Manager Erik ten Hag had a go back for what he perceived as unfair criticism. He felt I had been critical from day one.
“Actually, it was from game two when his United team lost at Brentford – but it was directed at the players, not the manager. But fair play to him for saying what he did.
“I have nothing but respect and admiration for managers who defend themselves and their teams. If creating a siege mentality at United leads to positive results and improved performances, it is the perfect response.”
ten Hag is under pressure for not having the best of seasons at United. The Dutch manager has been constantly criticised for either his tactics, lack of playing style or not getting the desired results.
The United job comes with a lot of pressure and scrutiny from the media and that is what ten Hag is currently facing.
A manager’s job is result based and if he was getting good results, he would have avoided a lot of the criticism.
As they say, success has many fathers but failure is an orphan!
