Erik ten Hag was left disappointed with his Manchester United side’s performance as they lost to Norwegian side Rosenborg 1-0 in their first pre-season friendly.
Despite the gulf in quality between the two sides, United were outplayed from the start by their Norwegian counterparts, with the Red Devils only managing five shots in the entire match compared to Rosenborg’s 22.
Ten Hag’s side included the likes of Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount and Casemiro, but the team was mainly filled with academy players. Most of the first team are set to return from holidays after their participation in this summer’s international tournaments in due course.
Speaking after the defeat, ten Hag was disappointed with the performance from his side:
“The result is not secondary. But of course we play in pre-season, but at Manchester United the standard has to be winning games and definitely not to lose games.
“If you can’t win don’t lose the games but we did in the end, in the last seconds of the game. Of course the performance is more important but we know the performance was below [the] standard.
“I think there was so many bad tackles in the first half. I thought they stopped really big opportunities when we were [looking] to [break] on the counter attacks. We got some big knocks but I think as I see now they will recover for training tomorrow.
“We can talk and make good on everything that was bad, but I am not that guy. I have seen that this is not the standard for top football.
“In top football we have much higher standards, as an individual you must make sure you are fit. I know you cannot be match fit in this moment, so we need these games to get there.
“I know we are playing against players who are already going in their lead, they have a much higher fitness level but still we are Man United and players from Man United should perform better.”
United will look to improve in their next friendly against Rangers on July 20th.
