Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has earned big praise after masterminding a surprise 2-1 win over Liverpool last night.
The Red Devils made a terrible start to the season, losing 2-1 at home to Brighton and then 4-0 away to Brentford, but responded in style last night as they earned a hard-fought three points against their bitter rivals.
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside, former Man Utd midfielder Luke Chadwick was hugely impressed with the change he saw in the team since the thrashing at the hands of Brentford.
Ten Hag made changes in personnel, dropping big names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire, but Chadwick also heaped praise on the manager for getting a reaction out of his players with extra work on the training ground during the week building up to the game.
“I didn’t have great hopes for the game, but from the first minute you could see a complete difference in terms of the intensity and desire, and how the team played without the ball,” Chadwick said.
“They looked like a completely different team, playing with much more hunger. And going forwards, there were more ideas, more players running in behind the opposition.
“It was a fantastic goal by Sancho, and after that it started to feel like maybe this would be our night. Liverpool are a fantastic team, but they didn’t really come up with much, they didn’t have the same level of intensity or ideas, they didn’t create guilt-edged chances. It was a bit nervy at the end when Salah pulled one back, but it was a fully deserved win for United.
“There’s nothing better than beating Liverpool, and the fans were buzzing. It was a huge step in the right direction after the first two results and performances.
“Professional football players, when they lose in the manner that they did to Brentford, you’d expect a reaction. I admit I wasn’t sure about the manager making them do that extra running session, but that’s why he’s the manager, and you can see he got a reaction out of them.
“It looks like he’s done an incredible job on the training ground since those first two games – we saw a massive change in terms of what the team looked like. If they can keep up that intensity and keep working hard, they’ll get their rewards. Full credit to Erik ten Hag and his coaching staff for the work they’ve obviously put in over the last week.”
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Chadwick added that although he feels the criticism Maguire gets from some fans and pundits is a bit unfair, he also felt this was a good game for Lisandro Martinez to be playing in due to the nature of Liverpool’s attacking threat.
The ex-Red Devil also praised the experience of Raphael Varane in the MUFC defence, as well as the big performance from the full-backs Diogo Dalot and Tyrell Malacia against difficult attacking opponents in Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, respectively.
“Maguire takes a lot of criticism, and I’m not sure all of it is justified. But when you’ve got the opportunity to bring in a player of Varane’s calibre and experience you can understand the manager making a change.
“And I thought Martinez was fantastic, it was probably a game more suited to his style, there wasn’t a lot of aerial bombardment. I thought both centre-backs were brilliant last night.
“I also thought Dalot did a fantastic job against Luis Diaz, who is a really tricky player to come up against. Malacia did well against Salah as well. I’m not surprised we saw tweaks to how the team was set up against Brentford. I also thought it was a completely different kind of performance from Bruno Fernandes – out of possession the work rate he put in was phenomenal. Some big calls from the manager but he got them right for this game.”