‘Those are the facts’ – Ten Hag evokes Benitez rant with ‘reality’ boast ahead of Liverpool clash | OneFootball

Erik ten Hag has evoked memories of a notorious Rafael Benitez proclamation in the lead-up to Liverpool’s clash against Manchester United this Sunday.

The Dutchman has begun his third Premier League season under a cloud of scrutiny after a dismal 2023/24 campaign, albeit one which was salvaged in part by a surprise FA Cup triumph, following on from their Carabao Cup win the previous year.

Speaking ahead of today’s showdown at Old Trafford, the 54-year-old was in a bullish mood as he hopes to frustrate the Reds once more.

Ten Hag boasted (via The Telegraph): “Listen, behind City we won the most trophies over the last two years so we performed better than anyone else. That’s the reality, those are the facts. This year we want to win trophies and I am quite confident we will build to this.”

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Ten Hag’s United finished two places and eight points ahead of Liverpool in his first season at United, but the following year the Merseysiers were five positions and 22 points better off, so on balance we’ve been the superior of the two teams.

In terms of the head-to-heads in that time, it’s an even split of one win, two draws and one defeat, but their 2-1 victory at Old Trafford a couple of years ago was answered by a memorable 7-0 hiding at Anfield a few months later.

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Even though we somehow failed to win any of their three clashes against the Red Devils last term, drawing two and losing one, on the balance of play we dominated each fixture but were made to pay for a lack of ruthlessness in both penalty boxes.

Granted, United might be slightly ahead in the trophy count during Ten Hag’s reign, but anyone who’s watched the two teams with objective eyes over the past couple of years is unlikely to argue that they’ve been ‘better’ than Liverpool overall.

When Benitez unleashed hell with his ‘facts‘ press conference in 2009, it preceded a costly run of dropped points which enabled our arch-rivals to build enough of a lead to keep us at bay in the title race. Any chance that the Dutchman’s take on that infamous noun will be equally ill-fated for his side?!

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