Tuesday, May 7

United supervisor Erik ten Hag defends selections as accidents hit

MANCHESTER, England — Erik ten Hag says there’s a Dutch expression about hindsight.

The Manchester United supervisor was defending his substitution selections from Thursday’s 2-2 draw with Sevilla within the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals at Old Trafford.

“Where I’m coming from you call it ‘you’re looking a cow in the (behind),’” Ten Hag stated Friday at a information convention. “We call it that in my region from the Netherlands.”

United completed the match with 10 males as a result of Ten Hag had used up his 5 substitutions earlier than defender Lisandro Martinez left the sport with a fractured bone in his foot shortly after Sevilla scored to make it 2-1 within the 84th minute. The guests pulled even on Harry Maguire’s personal aim in stoppage time.

Bruno Fernandes was on a yellow card when he was subbed off simply previous the hour mark. He had risked a second by throwing the ball away.

“When he (gets) sent off you tell me, ‘hey why don’t you get him off?’”

Ten Hag was talking earlier than Martinez was dominated out for the remainder of the season with a fractured metatarsal bone in his foot. Fellow center-back Raphael Varane additionally left Thursday’s sport with an harm and can miss “a few weeks,” United stated.

It’s not the primary time a United supervisor used a colourful and anatomical phrase – Alex Ferguson popularized “squeaky-bum time” when describing the tense late moments of a sport.

United will attempt to bolster its top-four place within the Premier League when it visits relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest on Sunday. United is fourth, tied on factors with Newcastle and three factors higher than fifth-place Tottenham.

“We have four or five very good centre-halves who can do the job,” Ten Hag stated.

Injuries and a busy slate of video games – together with the second leg at Sevilla subsequent Thursday adopted by an FA Cup semifinal match in opposition to Brighton on April 23 – imply lesser-used gamers should step up.

“You have to wait for your moment, and when your moment is there, you have to contribute. You have to bring your performance. That is what we demand,” Ten Hag stated.

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