Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has said he has chosen to “deny” and “ignore” his team’s 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham because the red card shown to Bruno Fernandes during the game was subsequently rescinded.
Spurs dominated United at Old Trafford on Sept. 29 as goals from Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke served to increase the pressure on Ten Hag following his team’s stuttering start to the season.
With Spurs 1-0 up in the first half, United captain Fernandes was shown a straight red card for a challenge on James Maddison near the halfway line. Speaking after the match, Ten Hag said the decision “changed the game,” while Fernandes was incensed by the decision and claimed Maddison himself said it wasn’t a sending off.
United appealed against the red card, with the Football Association confirming they had overturned the decision on Oct. 1.
“I deny that game, ignore that game against Spurs because we were downsized to 10 with a 1-0 losing position … And then the red card was overturned. So I totally ignore that game,” Ten Hag told a news conference on Thursday following the team’s draw with Fenerbahce.
“That is not a fair assessment of the team to take this into consideration because we didn’t have the chance to bounce back.
“But you see this team is resilient, this team is determined. Against Brentford, two tough away games now in Europe — Porto and today again [against Fenerbahce] — this team has character and this team showed fighting spirit and determination to win games.”
Ten Hag also pointed to the number of injuries suffered by his squad as a reason for some of United’s inconsistent results this season.
Defenders Luke Shaw, Leny Yoro and Tyrell Malacia have not yet made an appearance for the club this season, while Mason Mount is in his second spell out of action since the start of the campaign.
“It holds us back in our levels and also in our position in the league because when you don’t have the players available, you can’t line up the best team,” Ten Hag said.
“That is what’s holding us back in this moment and we need more players often available and then we have to work all together on this point. That is the players, the coaching staff, all the other staff. We have to do better … To get more available players because we know when we have them we are a really tough team to play and when we have them we can be really successful. That is what we have showed over the last couple of months.”
United travel to east London to face West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday.