Man Utd so bad Erik ten Hag admits he kept Cristiano Ronaldo on bench to SPARE blushes in 6-3 demolition derby vs City
ERIK TEN HAG blasted his “unacceptable” Manchester United flops for their derby hammering.
The furious Dutchman admitted they were so bad he spared Cristiano Ronaldo the humiliation of going on as a sub.
Ten Hag stopped just short of describing the first-half performance that left Manchester City 4-0 ahead as cowardly.
But the Red Devils boss said: “It’s quite simple, it’s a lack of belief.
“We were not brave enough, made tactical mistakes and then got hammered.
“When you don’t believe on the pitch you can’t win games, that is unacceptable.”
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Ten Hag replaced Marcus Rashford with Anthony Martial in the 59th minute and the French striker scored two consolation goals in the 6-3 defeat.
The Old Trafford chief claimed not to have snubbed Ronaldo but said it was to protect him on a day United fans left in their droves before half-time.
He said: “I wouldn’t bring him in because out of respect for Cristiano — for his big career.
“And the other thing was the advantage I could bring Martial, he needs the minutes.
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“But I don’t want to point it out like that.”
Yet Ten Hag’s decision only underlined how shambolic United were — as Erling Haaland grabbed his third Etihad hat-trick in a row and Phil Foden also hit a treble.
He said: “I told the players [they] lack belief, I’ve seen some highlights.
“We let them play. We have to criticise each other and I didn’t get the message right to the players, the belief to the pitch, our way of playing. That’s disappointing.”
United had won four games in a row following a 4-0 shaming at Brentford but Ten Hag admitted old, bad habits had returned against City.
He added: “In the last four games we brought that attitude on the pitch, a strong belief. Here, it was the other way around.
“It’s normal in our process that we have setbacks.
“We have to learn from it but clearly point it out.
“We can walk away from it but if we do, it won’t get the solution, so we will do it.”
United midfield man Christian Eriksen backed up his boss, saying: “Everyone feels it was a very bad day at the office.
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“We missed a bit of courage to play out from the back and we let them be at their strength.
“There are a lot of things we need to change and a lot of things we need to do better. It was far from acceptable.”