Erik ten Hag appears to have dismissed the idea of Manchester United bringing in fresh talent following their 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Sunday.
Ten Hag lost his first Premier League game in charge of the Red Devils thanks to a brace from German winger Pascal Gross. Brighton were undeniably the better side at Old Trafford, with United lacking quality in attack. The visitors also dominated the midfield.
Many United supporters would like to see Ten Hag make another few signings before the transfer window closes. The new manager has brought in just three players since his arrival earlier this summer - Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen and Lisandro Martinez.
That's surprising considering Ten Hag's predecessor Ralf Rangnick told his successor he needed to perform 'open-heart surgery' on the first-team squad. United finished sixth in the Premier League last season and haven't won a major trophy since May 2017.
The Red Devils have also lost countless players this summer for one reason or another. Lee Grant, Edinson Cavani, Jesse Lingard, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba and Andreas Pereira have all completed permanent moves away Old Trafford. United have also allowed Dean Henderson, Alvaro Fernandez and Alex Telles to fulfil loan deals.
But Ten Hag wants his current players to improve before he starts thinking about a major overhaul. When asked if United need more players before the transfer window closes in September, the Dutchman told reporters: "We could do better with the players we had."
Who should Erik ten Hag sign this summer? Let us know in the comments below!
Speaking to Match of the Day about the team's performance against Brighton, Ten Hag added: "First of all I'm disappointed that’s clear. We have to take the lessons. We could have been better on the ball, making too many easy mistakes. Also out of possession the organisation, [they were] goals they should not have scored.
"Brighton is a good team but I look to my team and we should have done things better and I thought it was unnecessary to give two easy goals away if we are better on the ball and make better decisions, not only with technical skills but with our choices and then we could have dominated the game.
"[In the second half] I saw a team that sticks together, who battles and also creates chances. We came back in the game but it was also about execution I think we had really good chances with [Marcus] Rashford. At least we created chances."
On the scale of the job in hand, Ten Hag added: "I’m aware of it from before and this game does not change it. It’s a hell of a job and we have to work really hard, analyse, learn the lessons and move forward."
Speaking in April, Rangnick told Ten Hag what he needed to do to revitalise the Red Devils. "You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are," said the German. "Now it’s about how do we solve them?
"It’s not enough to do some minor amendments, cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart. If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year."
