Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag issues warning to young stars

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has warned his young players that they need to add more consistency to their performances.

Speaking ahead of Manchester United’s game against Aston Villa on Sunday, the Dutchman highlighted that while Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo have all enjoyed a strong start to 2024, improvements can still be made. 

“The future for Manchester United is quite bright with such talent on board,” Ten Hag said in his press conference. “But you have to develop the talent and there is a lot of space for improvement and that is necessary if you want to go to the top levels. 

Ten Hag now wants more consistency from his promising trio (Image credit: Getty Images)”This club wants to achieve a lot, to win trophies. It is very ambitious so they then have to step up and bring higher levels and consistency. Also against the best opposition they have to express the same threat and it is about end product.”

Ten Hag, though, does recognise that the talented trio weren’t helped at the beginning of the season by the team as a whole. He explains that Manchester United placed too much pressure on them to perform, with the team not set-up in a way that was conducive for attacking players to thrive. 

“Players need time, especially young players like Rasmus and Alejandro,” Ten Hag added. “They need time, but also they need a team. 

Garnacho bagged a brace against West Ham (Image credit: Getty Images)”Those two factors were not there in the first part of the season. We had to make a lot of adjustments to the team in our way of play, so that was by stages difficult to serve the offensive part of the team. When that happens, it can go really quickly, and players progress and develop. 

“That’s what we’ve seen, but I was confident from the start they have the potential to do what they are doing. Now it’s about keeping going, being hungry.”

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