Brighton vs Manchester United
Premier League
Thursday
4th May 2023
Amex Stadium
Erik ten Hag faces the tough task of achieving a result on Thursday evening at Brighton & Hove Albion. Winning against The Seagulls would be a big step towards the Champions League. However, the Tukker is not immediately satisfied with this.
Ten Hag puts things on edge at Man Utd: “Good is no longer good enough”
“I don’t want to talk about being proud or satisfied during the season,” Ten Hag said during the press conference of The Red Devils. The coach sees it as a pitfall, although his team has a good year. “Satisfaction can lead to laziness, we have six games to go and we want to win every game. You need full focus, full energy and full preparation,” Ten Hag continued.
Ten Hag recently met Brighton in the semi-final of the FA Cup and then defeated the sub-topper on penalties. He knows a tough night awaits. “It’s going to be a fight. We have to get ready for a battle for the points. We want to win every game, we want to win every competition. It is clear that we want to play in the Champions League and that is the competition in which we want to act,” he said.
“We have to get that done now,” said Ten Hag. “We are fighting for now and at the moment the Premier League is the only thing we can show ourselves in. The FA Cup final isn’t until after the season, then we’ll look at that again. I never talk about whether the season is positive or negative. But good is no longer good enough, we have to do even better.” Then the focus can only be on the FA Cup final, the trainer indicated.
Ten Hag has no clarity about budget at Man Utd
Financially, there is still a lot of uncertainty ahead of Manchester United’s next season. The club is for sale, but the process is proving tedious.
After several deadline issues, two serious candidates appear to be left to take over the club entirely from the Glazer family: Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani. In addition, there are also some parties who want to settle for a minority share in the club.
All in all, much is still unclear about the financial future of the club. Manager Erik ten Hag also expressed this in conversation with The Guardian. ‘No, I have no influence on that. It’s clear what I want, but it’s not up to me. The owner makes the decisions.’
Ten Hag knows that money is needed to take the next step. “The club has to compete for the highest. The Champions League, the Premier League. But in football you need money to put together a squad. Because the level of your players determines whether you can be successful or not. Everyone knows you need money to put together a team, high level players cost money.’
Man Utd seems to be able to claim Champions League millions again next season. The club is currently fourth, two points behind number three Newcastle United. Man Utd, however, played one game less in England. Number five Liverpool is four points behind Man Utd, but then played two games more than Ten Hag’s club.
