Erik ten Hag was delighted by his gamers’ present of character and high quality towards Real Betis as Manchester United bounced again from their seven-goal shellacking at Liverpool with a Europa League win.
Just per week on from ending the membership’s six-year look forward to silverware by lifting the Carabao Cup got here one other historic afternoon for the Red Devils as they suffered a 7-0 Anfield annihilation.
Sunday’s loss equalled United’s heaviest ever defeat and Ten Hag caught with the identical beginning line-up that misplaced at Liverpool as they regarded to bounce again within the Europa League towards Betis.
Marcus Rashford’s early opener was cancelled out by a shocking Ayoze Perez strike, however second half Antony, Bruno Fernandes and Wout Weghorst objectives sealed a 4-1 last-16 first-leg victory.
“Definitely (the response I wanted),” Ten Hag stated. “We said that we had to reset and we have to bounce back and I think we played quite good first half.
“I think we should have been up 3-0 also, but then we make one mistake.
“Then you go 1-1 into half-time but we bounce back in the second half and I think it was a really good performance in the second half.
“It’s not about ignoring (the Liverpool defeat). We make mistakes and we got hammered for that because we didn’t control the standards we have.
“We showed complacency and you can never do that in top football.”
Asked if he named an unchanged aspect to supply his gamers an opportunity to redeem themselves, Ten Hag stated: “Actually, yeah, but also I thought it was the best line-up if I saw Betis.
“But also we played 23 games in a row with one loss and the 24th a huge defeat. But you can’t ignore all the 22 games before where this team played massively good.”
Ten Hag admits he was “curious” to know the way the Old Trafford trustworthy would react 4 days on from the Liverpool loss however was “pleased by the response from the crowd to the team”.
The United followers received behind their gamers, with under-fire Weghorst’s first house objective cheered to the rafters after scrutinised skipper Fernandes’ identify echoed across the floor following his header.
“I think he was the best player on the pitch and it shows his personality,” Ten Hag stated of Fernandes.
“He played a little bit deeper role tonight, I asked him to do, and I think he did it brilliant.
“He was the leader in making the game from the back in possession, making the rhythm of the game, a lot of good passes in between the lines and from there we created a lot of chances.”
Quizzed in regards to the Fernandes problem on Betis goalkeeper Claudio Bravo that introduced a reserving, the United boss added: “It’s his strength and his passion but you are right sometimes he has to control that.
“He has to bring it that it is his strength and not when it’s too much it becomes a weakness.
“That’s true and he knows that but there’s always small margins.”
Betis boss Manuel Pellegrini admitted United have been “very much superior” by the tip of the sport and will have ended with extra.
“I don’t think a knockout game is ever over in football,” the previous Manchester City supervisor stated.
“We’ve got 90 minutes to play at home and we have to start from minute one to see if we can turn the game round. I don’t think it will be easy to take on a tough team like Manchester United. We’re going to try.”