Manchester United coach Eric Ten Hag said that his team needs to improve to compete at the top, despite his happiness with the fourth win in a row, which came at the expense of Arsenal 3-1 on Sunday.
Marcus Rashford scored two goals in the second half, while his colleague Anthony scored the first goal before the break, to continue United’s triumphant march that began once morest Liverpool.
And the Dutchman took the initiative to reduce the talk regarding United approaching the competition for the top, with the high morale thanks to the victories.
“I understand that the fans are dreamers and that the standards of Manchester United must be good, but we are at the beginning of a development process, we are still far away,” the former Ajax coach told reporters.
“We have to do things a lot better than the current situation, it’s an investment, we have to do it together every day and raise the standards at Carrington (the training ground). We have to improve if we want to win titles in the end,” he said.
Nevertheless, Ten Hag was delighted to see that the team, which were fragile last season, did not lose their composure following Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka equalized in the 60th minute.
“It’s great to see the spirit that the team showed, and their ability to deal with difficulties,” the Dutch coach said. “It shows the mentality. We have really improved in this regard.”
He added, “We have the right personality, and now it’s regarding cooperation and dealing with difficulties as well as development, we must maintain our calm and composure and adhere to our style of play.”
It was not yet clear United’s ability to control the match for long periods, as it relied heavily on counter-attacks, except for the exchange of passes at the beginning of the match.
The Dutch coach said he wanted to see more pressure from his team at the start of the match.
“I think our performance in the first ten minutes is the best this season. But we were not at the same level following the disallowed goal (for Arsenal).”
“We had a good plan, we didn’t implement it completely on the field. We didn’t control the game when we had to. We had a setback and we fought, that’s good and I like that mentality.”