Erik ten Hag reviews Newcastle defeat
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was lost for words after learning of Manchester United’s latest defeat following their heavy 3-0 home loss at the hands of Newcastle United on Wednesday night. The Carabao Cup holders crashed out in humiliating fashion with a second 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford in the space of four days, leaving Erik ten Hag facing intense scrutiny over his position. And Klopp’s expression of pure shock told the whole story about United’s recent plight.
Goals from Miguel Almiron, Lewis Hall and Joe Willock helped the Magpies seal an emphatic victory for Eddie Howe’s side in Manchester, dumping Ten Hag’s side out of the competition just eight months after losing to them at Wembley in the final.
And Ten Hag wasn’t the only one surprised by the result as Klopp prepared for his post-match press conference. As he sat down, Klopp looked up to the TV screens above him and let out a long “Oooh!” before pulling two facial expressions, one with his mouth wide open and the other almost wincing at United’s painful defeat.
After five seconds or so of emoting, he said “OK” to the press officer alongside him and began his media duties as normal.
But such a dramatic reaction from the German underlines the situation the Red Devils currently find themselves in after another dreadful defeat. Going out to Newcastle is certainly not an embarrassment in itself, but the resignation in their performance against a much-changed side prompted the fans to head towards the exit long before the final whistle.
The under-fire Ten Hag accepted responsibility for the defeat after the game but the 53-year-old insisted his team can turn things around under his management: “We know this is not good enough. We have to take responsibility for it, I have to take responsibility for it, ” he told Sky Sports.
“We don’t give the performance, so I feel sorry for the fans. It is below our standards and we have to put it right. We have to recover from it but we have to quickly recover – Saturday is the next game (against Fulham), and we have to raise our standards. This is not good enough.”
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To Klopp’s delight, the Reds avoided an upset to earn their own place in the quarter-finals after a battling 2-1 victory over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
Cody Gakpo put the visitors in front just after the half-hour mark before his countryman Justin Kluivert equalised in the second half.
But Darwin Nunez produced a moment of magic with a stunning curling effort from wide out on the left flank to clinch victory against the Cherries and set up a last-eight home tie against West Ham.
And the 55-year-old declared himself pleased with their gritty display.
“It’s a top, top, top cup game. It’s all about winning, it’s all about getting through,” Klopp said. “There were good things today, I don’t have to speak about the circumstances [because] you saw it yourselves. It was really difficult for both teams.
“First half we could have scored more goals, we didn’t. Second half, obviously we realised it would have been a good idea to have scored more goals [in the first half] because the wind changed the game again in the second half. We scored our second goal, a wonderful goal and then we fought extremely hard, we had good moments but it is all about attitude in these moments.
“Both teams wanted it, everybody can expect that from the home team, but I saw my team as well – how hard we really wanted it and I am really happy about that. It was a top cup game in strange, strange circumstances.”
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