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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Fuming Erik ten Hag takes action against Man Utd flops after embarrassment at Brentford

Erik ten Hag has cancelled a day off for Manchester United players after they were thrashed by Brentford.

A feeble United went down 4-0 in west London, where they were four goals down within 35 minutes amid a litany of careless errors.

Ten Hag - who publicly questioned the desire of his players post-match - hauled the squad into the club's Carrington training base on Sunday morning for an extra training session, having become the first United manager to lose his first two competitive matches for 101 years.

The Dutchman was back at his desk seeking to turn things around ahead of next Monday's match at home to Liverpool, where fans are planning a protest against the club's owners, the Glazers.

Dreadful errors from goalkeeper David de Gea were largely responsible for Brentford's first two goals on Saturday, with the Spain international fumbling a long range effort from Josh Dasilva into his net for the first, and then passing the ball out to an under-pressure Christian Eriksen ahead of the second.

Eriksen was robbed on the edge of his own box by Denmark international teammate Mathias Jensen who slotted home.

Ten Hag was left stunned as his side were well beaten (Getty Images)

A close range header from Ben Mee amid more lax defending soon made it three, before Bryan Mbuemo finished off a superb move to make it four.

A stunned Ten Hag seemed shall-shocked when he faced the press at full-time, saying: "We've all seen the game.

"I think Brentford were more hungry, and we conceded goals from individual mistakes. You can have a good plan, but then you have to put the plan in the bin.

"The first two goals is about dealing with the ball, and decisions."

Elaborating on De Gea's error for the second goal, he added: "He (Eriksen) didn't have to receive the ball there, we didn't give him options. We said invite them, play long.

David de Gea was among the United players who apologised for the loss (Getty Images)

"I'm convinced that (De Gea) can do it (play out from the back). He's shown it in training, he can do it."

The Dutchman went on to point the finger at his players as a whole, adding that he could have substituted any of them at half-time, when he replaced Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Fred.

"We have to question their desire, and we will do it in the coming hours," he said.

"But we are together, and we are clearly in a really difficult situation, but we stick together and we have to find resources and solutions.

"They follow my instructions, but they make bad decisions. This is football, it is a game of mistakes and you get punished.

"I subbed three, but I could have changed them all. We want to bring some fresh energy into the game."

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