Erik ten Hag reveals what fuelled Man Utd comeback against Brentford

Erik ten Hag has revealed that Manchester United's sense of "injustice" around Brentford's opening goal spurred them on to a crucial 2-1 win on Saturday.

Brentford opened the scoring in the sixth minute of additional time at the end of the first-half in controversial fashion. The Bees took advantage of Matthijs de Ligt being forced off temporarily after receiving treatment on the field for a gash on his head to take the lead through Ethan Pinnock - the defender rising highest from a corner kick to nod home the opener.

After a disappointing first-half, Man Utd came out firing on all cylinders in the second, putting in a season-best performance in order to win the game 2-1 thanks to goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund.

Explaining his side's much-improved second-half outing, Ten Hag explained that his team had been spurred on by the "injustice" they felt with the referee's decision to force De Ligt off temporarily in the lead up to Brentford's opener:

“Pressure? Pressure is always there. We have to win every game, so when we are 1-0 down we have to see how we turn this around," said Ten Hag.

“We felt some injustice and we use this as fuel for the second half, and we increased the tempo, and we scored two great goals.

“I really enjoyed today the performance first half, but especially the second half.”

When queried about the need for De Ligt to come off, Ten Hag replied: "It didn’t change anything. It was dry blood.

“So, he was already treated for that injury. Just dry blood, so no-one from us understood why he was sent off. I went over to Matthijs and asked ‘what’s wrong?’ He says ‘just dry blood and I have to come off, so I don’t know why’.

“Of course, there was a huge moment because Brentford is very good in corners, and when you then miss one of your best headers, and they take benefit from it then of course you are disappointed.”

The win sees Man Utd rise up to 11th in the Premier League table having taken just 11 points from their first eight games of the 2024/25 campaign.

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