• 18 hours ago
Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag on Manuel Ugarte needing to find his feet and the challenge of facing West Ham
Istanbul, Turkey
Transcript
00:00He costs a lot of money and you've had to be patient with him. Will it be worth the wait?
00:09We have to integrate him. He came late in, in the window.
00:14Then already we had to integrate him during the competitions.
00:20That takes time and we have to be patient.
00:24As you see, the quality in that position is not right.
00:28It's very difficult for a team to control games.
00:33I don't even speak about dominating games.
00:36That position needs one who brings the quality all the time.
00:43We have to integrate him now in this team.
00:46As I said, I'm pleased with his performance today.
00:48From here on, he can build on it.
00:51Erik, how do you think the team has responded to that defeat against Tottenham?
00:56That's three away draws in tough games.
01:00Obviously, coming back from behind against Bradford, you've got another tough away game on Sunday.
01:07How do you think the team has bounced back from that defeat?
01:10I denied that game, ignored that game against Perth.
01:16We were down 2-10 with a 1-0 losing position.
01:21Then the red card was overturned.
01:26I totally ignored that game.
01:29That is not a fair assessment to the team to take this into consideration.
01:37We didn't have a chance to bounce back.
01:40You see this team is resilient and determined.
01:44As you said, Bradford had two tough away games in Europe.
01:49Porto and today again.
01:51This team has character.
01:53This team showed fighting spirit and determination to win games.
01:57I understand what you mean.
01:59If you had won that game against Tottenham, people would be looking at this period and thinking
02:06Manchester United have done really well.
02:08But because you lost that game, Man United have not won that many games.
02:12They've drawn a lot of games.
02:14That's why I'm trying to get your feeling about how the club has bounced back.
02:20I tried to explain it was not fair to assess the team.
02:24There was a send-off from one of our best players, our captain.
02:30It was overturned.
02:33Everyone agreed it was not a right decision.
02:39So it was unjust.
02:41It was also unjust to assess the team on that performance against Spurs.
02:48Of course, it was a tough first half.
02:50But also in that period, I remember some very good chances.
02:53The team didn't get the time to bounce back from that position.
02:59One losing position.
03:01This team, and this is what I also try to explain, is resilient to bounce back
03:07between games, but also in games.
03:11Paul.
03:12Eric, I remember after Bayern Munich gave away at the start of last season,
03:16you said you were going to look into the amount of injuries you were getting.
03:20Obviously, that troubled you for the rest of the season.
03:22Obviously, this season, again, injuries amount to nothing.
03:25You're up to six, seven, eight, nine players out.
03:28Can you put your finger on why that is?
03:30You're still getting this amount of injuries.
03:34That holds us back in our levels and also in our position in the league.
03:44Because when you don't have the players available, you can't line up the best team.
03:52That is what's holding us back in this moment.
03:55We need more players, often available.
04:00Then we have to work all together on this point.
04:04That is the players, the coaching staff, all the other staff.
04:10We have to do better to get more available players.
04:16Because we know when we have them, we are a really tough team to play.
04:22When we have them, we can be really, really successful.
04:25That is what we have shown over the last couple of months.
04:38I haven't seen it, but it's only then I have to tell you out of the second hand.
04:45From the doctor and the physio who told me what they saw.
04:49First I have to see the video before I can comment on this.
04:55I don't know.

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