Sports
Erik Ten Hag Defends De Gea After Europa League Blunders

In the aftermath of Manchester United‘s 3-0 defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League on Thursday, Erik ten Hag has come out in defense of David de Gea, despite his costly mistakes during the game.
De Gea was partly to blame for Sevilla’s opening goal due to his decision to pass to an under-pressure Harry Maguire, who then lost possession, allowing Youssef En-Nesyri to score.
He also made another clear error, which enabled En-Nesyri to complete Sevilla’s deserved win. Ten Hag has faced calls this season to replace De Gea this summer once the Spaniard’s contract with United expires.
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However, when asked about De Gea’s future as United’s long-term goalkeeper, Ten Hag replied, “He is the one with the most clean sheets in the Premier League. So it shows he’s a very capable goalkeeper.”
Meanwhile, Ten Hag expressed his disappointment with the mentality shown by his United players during the game. He called it “unacceptable” and stressed that they must learn from their mistakes, start games with more desire, passion, and composure, and be better in character if they want to win trophies and be successful.
“We have to pick the players up,” said Ten Hag. “But we also have to face that we let ourselves down, we have let the fans down. If you want to win trophies, if you want to be successful, you need character…Everyone can see that the demands and the standard have to be higher in a club such as Manchester United.”
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Ten Hag emphasized the importance of consistency and called on United players to show more willingness to win. While acknowledging that they have good mental skills, he stressed that they need to do better and be more consistent if they want to achieve success at the highest level
But when asked if De Gea is United’s long-term goalkeeper after the defeat to Sevilla, Ten Hag replied: ‘He is the one with the most clean sheets in the Premier League.
‘So it shows he’s a very capable goalkeeper.’
Ten Hag also claimed the mentality shown by his United players in the loss to Sevilla was ‘unacceptable’.
‘I have to acknowledge that it is the truth: it is hard, it is tough and it can’t be. It’s unacceptable,’ said Ten Hag.
‘We have to learn. We have to start games better, more desire, passion, composure on the ball. And when we have a setback we have to deal with it and get back on the ball. We have to be better. It is not about the playing skills. It is about character.
‘They had more willingness to win and that can’t be, I think it is unacceptable.
‘We have to pick the players up. But we also have to face that we let ourselves down, we have let the fans down. If you want to win trophies, if you want to be successful, you need character.
‘I have had this [situation] many times… City, Liverpool, Brentford. And every time we bounced back.
‘We have good mental skills, on some occasions we are not there. What we have to accept now is that it is unacceptable. Everyone can see that the demands and the standard has to be higher in a club such as Manchester United.
‘We have seen we can do it against Forest. We had the desire and today we didn’t. You can expect that Manchester United players do it more consistently. Too often we have a really poor performance and that can’t be.’