United will make a success of the season, says Ten Hag
The pressure is mounting on the Dutchman after a dismal start to the season
Under-fire Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag remains adamant that his team will "make a success of the season" as he heads into a crucial four-day stretch that could determine his future.
Despite Sunday’s humiliating 3-0 loss to Tottenham at Old Trafford - United’s eighth home defeat in 20 matches - club officials are standing by the Dutchman for now.
That could quickly change depending on United’s performance in the upcoming week. They face Porto in the Europa League on Thursday, followed by a challenging Premier League clash at Villa Park on Sunday.
Another dismal showing like the Spurs defeat would almost certainly signal the end of Ten Hag’s time at the club. But for now, the 54-year-old remains calm, despite having only seven points from six league games this season.
"We are going to make a success from the season," Ten Hag told Sky Sports.
"Nothing is easy, but this is nothing for me to panic about," he added. "We can sort [the problems] out, this team can sort this out."
Asked if he thinks he will still be in his job should the next two games go badly, Ten Hag said: "I'm not thinking about it, I'm not anxious.
"We created a togetherness in the summer with the ownership and the leadership.
"We made this agreement, and we were all behind it. We know the strategy [is to bring in] young players in a transition period.
"They also know in May in all my last six seasons there were always trophies and that is what we are aiming for."
While Ten Hag isn’t directly responsible for his players’ actions on the pitch for 90 minutes, he is to blame for implementing tactics that simply aren’t working, and haven’t worked for a while.
Ten Hag's strategies are clearly not yielding results, raising questions about whether he is too stubborn to make adjustments or if his players aren’t fully embracing his philosophy of the game.
Asked if he takes responsibility for failures on the pitch, Ten Hag replied: "When the players have a bad performance then I haven't done my job great because they didn't play as I expected them to do.
"We are there together and we have to fight together to get out of this."