Erik ten Hag unhappy and with injury concerns after Liverpool thrash Manchester United in friendly

Erik ten Hag was left with some fitness headaches and unhappy with how his side defended as Manchester United were beaten 3-0 by Liverpool in a pre-season friendly in South Carolina on Saturday night.

Goals from Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas secured the moral-boosting victory for Arne Slot and his side, while Manchester United head into next weekend’s Community Shield against Manchester City on something of a low.

Ten Hag did take some positives from the performance but admitted he was not happy with how easily Liverpool found the back of the net.

‘There were mixed feelings,’ Ten Hag said. ‘I think I have seen positive bits, but the way we concede goals, we are, of course, not happy with it. Of course, Liverpool are a very good side. They are very aggressive, and they have lots of goalscoring abilities, so they did very well. But the way we conceded, we are not happy with it.

‘As I said, I think there were good bits, and the first goal is always very important. I thought Liverpool played very well, but they were also very efficient.’

There were also fitness concerns for the Dutchman, as he addressed worries over Victor Lindelof, Jonny Evans and Will Fish following the game.

‘Always, we have to see what’s going on, the assessment,’ said the Red Devils boss. ‘With Will Fish, it’s an impact injury, but we also had to sub at half-time, Jonny Evans, because he was ill. Victor Lindelof was a precaution. So yeah, there are some injuries, but we have to see how bad it will be.’

Ten Hag did not sound overly worried about the result, pleased with the work that has been put in on the US tour and now focussing on meeting Manchester City at Wembley.

‘The group and staff, everyone has done a great job,’ he said. ‘It’s always tough at the end of such a tour, but we are really pleased with all the effort they put in. We came together, we worked on our game model, and now we have to fly back and we have to recover, because it’s tough.

‘Especially the last days, and then such a tough game at the end, but you learn a lot about your team. Now we have to recover, and then go to prepare the next game, and it is a big game.’

Reds boss Slot was pleased with how his team played, but was not going over the top, admitting that the scoreline could have been very different.

‘We are very happy with the result, we scored some really nice goals,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think we had enough control over the game because United were threatening us more than a few times. It’s a 3-0 win but the score could have been different tonight as well.’

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