Erik ten Hag has 'no regrets' over Man Utd's disappointing Champions League campaign

  • United finished fourth in Group A and will not even play in the Europa League this season
  • Red Devils won just one of their six games and conceded a whopping 15 goals
  • Ten Hag was keen to focus on the positives
Ten Hag is keeping positive
Ten Hag is keeping positive / James Baylis - AMA/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag insisted he had "no regrets" about his side's short-lived stay in the Champions League, but warned his players they must learn from the experience.

The Red Devils crashed out of Europe altogether on Tuesday as a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich ensured they finished bottom of Group A, behind both Copenhagan and Galatasaray and with just one victory to their name.

The result only adds to the pressure on Ten Hag's shoulders but the United boss remained determined to focus on the positives after the game.

"We know we want to be more consistent," he told TNT Sports. "Me as a manager, I have to improve the team, help the team progress, guide them, and the players have to take responsibility. We have to do that together.

"The players gave everything, we saw the spirit. I have to pay a big compliment for the way they worked together as a team against a good Bayern side. You need energy when the game is going, and especially in forward positions the options [on the bench] were limited.

"I don't look with regret [at the campaign]. We want to be in the Champions League, the target was always to qualify for the knock-outs, but we have to learn from it, and accept we played some good football. 

"Rasmus Hojlund scored five times, we had some very good performances, and we have to take that into the Premier League. We want to be back in the Champions League again and so we have to qualify again."


Erik ten Hag
United won just one of six games / James Baylis - AMA/GettyImages

Ten Hag was adamant United played well against Bayern in their closing fixture but acknowledged the damage was done long before kick-off.

"We didn't lose it today, that's clear," he said. "We had some good performances, but made some individual mistakes.

"It's not good enough. Today the performance was very good. We didn't deserve to lose, but we lost the game.

"The team did very good, we were very good defensively and in the pressing. We had many ball regains, especially second half. But then we didn't take enough benefit from it - we were playing against a strong side.

"Bayern always, even when they are not in the game, have enough individual class to produce one moment - and that's what happened."


READ THE LATEST MAN UTD NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP

feed