Erik ten Hag admitted that he was not quick enough to react to his Manchester United side losing control of Thursday night’s trip to Tottenham as they dropped a two-goal lead to draw.
Pedro Porro and Heung-min Son scored in the second half to rescue a point for Spurs, against a United side which looked comfortable after goals from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford.
Yet manager Ten Hag insisted post-match that his team were rarely in command of the game.
He revealed to BT Sport: “It was the same as before half-time. We lose control, we conceded the goal – you could see it coming. I had already prepared the subs, but I was a little bit too late.”
Shortly after Porro’s goal got Tottenham back in the match, Ten Hag introduced Fred and Anthony Martial off the bench, however it did little to turn the tide as the hosts continued to press until their 79th-minute equaliser.
On how United could have played differently, he stated: “Manage the game, keep the ball. We gave so many easy balls away. Have a good defensive organisation, which we didn’t always have.
“With the goals [we conceded], it was quite obvious – we didn’t block the crosses and you have to be proactive there. You have to come out and block the shot. With the second [goal], it was a long ball and we didn’t squeeze out, it was so easy for them.
“They kept coming and it was so easy to score a goal then.”
