Erik ten Hag claims Manchester United are not motivated by the chance to wreck Manchester City's chances of matching their historic Treble.
United can end City's hopes of emulating their Treble haul of 1999 by beating them in tomorrow's FA Cup final showdown at Wembley. But Ten Hag – who ended United's six-year wait for a trophy earlier this season with victory in the Carabao Cup final - claimed that is not their main source of motivation.
“We want to win a cup,” said Ten Hag. “It's not about stopping them, it's about that we have a great opportunity to win the cup. I think City have done a very good job, they play very good football, so they deserve it.
“But I don’t look - of course I look at our opponents - but we look to ourselves and you have to see where you are as a club and from there on you have to make progress and I think we did over the last season.
“We made very good progress, we're in a good direction and we have our opportunity in the summer to make new targets, new goals, over the shorter term, but over the longer term they will stay the same.
“As I said last year, we want to restore Manchester United, but we still have a way to go.”
HAVE YOUR SAY! Who will win the FA Cup final? Comment below.
Asked it it was the biggest game of his career, Ten Hag said: “I don’t know. I had some more, especially with Ajax. It's definitely a big game, but I don’t want to make an assessment on what is the biggest game.
“But we have a great opportunity, we have a great opponent and we're looking forward to the test. I'm very excited. I've played many cup finals in the Netherlands as a player and as a coach and they were always fantastic experiences.
“In the Netherlands we have De Kuip and it's a special place to be, but Wembley, I think is probably the best stadium in the world, and to be there in cup final is really exciting.”
Ten Hag was asked if on-loan signing Wout Weghorst's last game for United would be the FA Cup final and said: “I don’t know. You can’t say that in this moment.
“I'm not, at this moment, into transfer politics, I'm in to win this game and we will do everything to do that. Wout made a very good contribution to the team results in January, from when we took him from.”
