‘Too rushed, too erratic’ – Erik ten Hag disappointed with Manchester United performance in Real Sociedad win

Erik ten Hag bemoaned his side’s lack of guile in front of goal in the second half against Real Sociedad as they missed the group’s top spot.

With the side frustrated in front of goal for the second half, they will now face a two-legged tie against one of the Champions League sides who finished third in their group stage: Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Barcelona, Sporting, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla or Juventus.

“You do not always get what you deserve,” he began. “That’s always football. The first leg, you get a penalty that isn’t a penalty. Today we win. So I’m happy with that.”

He went on to praise young goalscorer, Garnacho, saying: “Some other things like the performance from Garnacho, Donny back in the team, we made a really good goal.

“But of course we are disappointed because we didn’t score the two goals we need. Antony was not available, Anthony Martial was not available, Jadon Sancho was not available, so it’s thin, and I am really happy with Garnacho’s performance. He was a threat, he scored a goal, he was reliable in defending, so I hope he can keep this going. It was a great attack, Bruno, Ronny and a great finish, it was really enjoyable.”

However, he said that after the restart, his team were, “too rushed, too erratic, we didn’t work good on the ball any more, we needed balls in the box but that process didn’t work well. We had to take risks, but we kept a clean sheet. Of course we are disappointed, we want always to be number one, but we have some positives to take from San Sebastian.”