Ten Hag gets worrying response from Man Utd fans after Carragher comment

Erik ten Hag accused Jamie Carragher of subjective punditry after the Liverpool legend criticised Manchester United’s defending against Fulham.

In a segment on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Carragher said United had defended in a way that he had “never seen before”.

He added: “What I mean by that is that they like to press high with a deep block. It’s impossible. They are trying to do two things at the same time, you can only do one thing or the other. They are all pressing high or defending deep, they are trying to do both.”

Ten Hag bites back in press conference

Ten Hag mentioned Carragher in his press conference on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s FA Cup meeting with Nottingham Forest.

“First of all, some analysts are very objective in their comments,” Ten Hag said, “very good advice, some are very subjective. Jamie Carragher from the first moment on has criticised and now he wants to make his point.

“Probably in the first half an hour, yeah, he had a point. Fulham in their midfield set up surprised us a little bit and then we have to find the solutions. After half an hour we found the solutions.”

Something that does not bode well for Ten Hag is the fact that a lot of United fans agreed with Carragher’s comments.

One fan wrote: “Carragher is right. As a United fan, I see it all the time. When the team presses high, the defence sits deep, giving huge space for opponent players to occupy and beat the press, so simple to see.”

Another posted: “Word for word what I’ve been saying all season. Great MNF segment by Jamie as per usual.”

Manchester football journalist Michael Plant also concurred with Carragher’s analysis, writing: “Carragher analysis spot on from last night and has been that way all season. Appreciate he only had a few minutes, but there are even more recurring faults & details to highlight. Baffling that Ten Hag has repeatedly said his team have played well this season.”