What Erik ten Hag told Manchester United players at half-time during game against Aston Villa

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Erik ten Hag has revealed what he told his Manchester United team at half-time when the Red Devils were trailing 2-0 to Aston Villa.

Manchester United came into the game off the back of a dismal 2-0 defeat to David Moyes’ West Ham United side and there were fears this game was heading in the same direction.

Well, Patrice Evra called it but United came back against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa from two goals down to win 3-2 as it was an inspired Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford who played key roles in the second half.

Rasmus Hojlund netted the winner but credit has to go to Erik ten Hag for changing things up in the second half, otherwise, the game could have gotten away from them.

Ten Hag’s half-time message

Despite the pressure building on the Dutchman reaching breaking point as his United side were booed off the pitch at the break, the former Ajax boss chose to stay positive when talking to his team at half-time.

“At half-time, I said to the team, ‘keep believing, and keep doing what we did, actually do even more’,” Ten Hag revealed to Amazon Prime Sport.

“We needed to put more and more pressure on. At 1-2 then when we added pressure you see what happened.”

The Dutchman certainly deserves praise for how he chose to stick with the same 11 for the second half and this turned out to be a wise move.

Hojlund has been taken off at around the hour mark previously for the Red Devils with the latest example of this being at the London Stadium but Ten Hag stuck with the Danish forward and was rewarded.

Ten Hag has to keep team the same

When the team news was announced around an hour or so before kick-off, the only real point of contention was Diogo Dalot at left-back and Kobbie Mainoo playing in a lone pivot role.

With Luke Shaw and Sofyan Amrabat out injured for the Red Devils, Ten Hag had little choice but to go with this team selection and moving forward, he has to keep the team the same.

The front three, in particular, has been a consistent source of frustration for the fans this season but with Garnacho on the right, Rashford on the left and Hojlund up front, the Red Devils looked dangerous. This front three has to start at the City Ground on Saturday.

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