“By far not good enough” – Erik ten Hag blasts Man Utd stars after embarrassing defeat in first friendly | OneFootball

Erik ten Hag has blasted his Manchester United players after they suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat to Norwegian side Rosenborg on Monday.

The Red Devils travelled to Trondheim for their first pre-season friendly of the summer, looking to kick-start their preparations with a pressurised campaign on the horizon. Although Ten Hag earned a new contract with a shock FA Cup final win over Manchester City — his second trophy in two years at Old Trafford — an eighth-place finish in the Premier League simply will not be accepted again.

With that in mind, a 1-0 defeat to Rosenborg is hardly the best start to the summer. The Troll Children are the most successful club in Norway with 26 league titles and are already fully match-fit as they’re 14 games into their season, but they haven’t won a title since 2018 and are currently stuck in 11th place in the Eliteserien following a recent 4-1 defeat to Sarpsborg.

What’s more, this was a Manchester United side that included Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount, Casemiro, Jonny Evans and Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the starting line-up, as well as Hannibal following his loan with Sevilla. But even with that quality on the pitch, the Red Devils mustered just five shots, only finding the target with two of them — compared to 22 shots from Rosenborg.

“The result is not secondary. We play pre-season but at Manchester United, there’s a standard,” Ten Hag told MUTV after the match. “You win games. Definitely you don’t lose games. If you can’t win, don’t lose the game as we did at the end, the last second of the game.

“The performance is more important. The performance was below standard.”

Despite the experience and quality Man Utd took with them to Norway, it was 20-year-old goalkeeper Radek Vitek who was their star of the show. The Czech stopper is yet to make progress from academy football with the Red Devils, with 18 appearances on loan at Accrington Stanley last season the sum total of his senior football to date.

However, Vitek was in top form on Monday, on hand to make seven saves in a stunning one-man effort to save Man Utd from embarrassment. Vitek also showed brilliant composure with the ball at his feet, completing a match-high 69 passes at a success rate of 90%.

While Ten Hag didn’t appreciate his young goalkeeper being put under so much pressure, he was grateful for his efforts in keeping some level of respectability to the scoreline.

“Let’s say he got the opportunity from the team to make some very good saves – because our performance as a team is by far not good enough,” Ten Hag said of Vitek.

On the overall standard of Man Utd’s play, the Dutchman continued: “I have seen this is not the standard for top football. Top football, you have to achieve much higher standards. It starts with any individual, make sure you are fit.

“I know we can’t be match fit in this moment, therefore, you need these games. I know we are playing an opponent who are in their league, they have a much higher fitness level. But still we are Man Utd and players and teams from Man Utd must perform better.”

Man Utd will look to give a better account of themselves when they face Scottish giants Rangers at Murrayfield on Saturday.