Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag took positives from the Community Shield defeat against Man City on Saturday.
Alejandro Garnacho scored a second half opener after coming off the bench, only for Bernardo Silva to mark his birthday with a late equaliser to force the game to penalties.
After losing the match on penalties (7-6), Ten Hag told ITV: “Tough result to take. When the performance is right, when you lose everyone feels this. It hurts in your stomach. You have to feel pain and we have to hurt. We have to take this belief in to the league.”
“We have to believe that we can compete with City”
Erik ten Hag reflects on Man Utd’s penalty shoot-out loss to Man City
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United missed some glorious chances to score throughout the game. Amad Diallo misplaced a squared pass to Mason Mount in the box and Marcus Rashford scuffed a chance to convert an inviting pass from Garnacho.
He added: “We did very good to produce the second goal in the FA Cup final before half-time and weren’t able to do that here.”
United kick off their Premier League campaign next Friday at home to Fulham. Ten Hag will be demanding more from his team in the final third because we can’t continue to be so wasteful.
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Must say after the first 30 minutes or so of watching my boys fanny around in defence, I feared we were in for a hiding. When did the team I love get so scared? So shy, so nervous, so uncertain what to do next? Never mind SAF, Doc’s boys would have rolled Citeh over today, and I suspect Big Ron’s boys would also.
Yeah, I know I’m living in the past, but we were brave then; Cavalier attacking football, come what may. We have some really, really good players, but this isn’t my United. It’s not the fearless Team I’ve have loved for so long,,AND I WANT THEM BACK.