Erik ten Hag believes Manchester United’s “most important” problem to solve is improving the team’s self-belief ahead of important fixtures against Porto and Aston Villa this week.
The manager is under increased pressure after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur but is set to be given the trips to Porto and Villa before the international break.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Ten Hag insisted that he is not worried about losing his job if results do not go United’s way and said the club are “together” under the new ownership.
But Ten Hag’s side must improve on the pitch and the Dutchman identified what was missing in the 3-0 defeat to Spurs as United made their joint-worst start to a Premier League season after six games.
“The most important is always keeping the belief,” he told Sky Sports. “You stay in the game by keeping the belief. That’s the most important message that we have to give because if you lose your faith you lose everything. We have to keep going and stick to the plan and move on.”
Ten Hag reiterated his claim that United are in “transition” and said his team can still achieve their targets this season. Having won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in his first two years in charge, Ten Hag believes United can challenge for silverware again.
“From the moment I came in, we knew we had to change,” he said. “We had to replace some older players and bring new players in. Our choice was to bring young players in and you know that takes time to get the messages on board, to get a game model on board and to introduce a new culture that takes time.
“In the meantime, you have to win and I think we have proven in the last two years, and we win. And I’ve proven in my career that always I will win. The last six years I have [won] eight trophies.
“We have to embed the game model, we have to embed a stronger team as we have now and so we have to work on our problems and give the solutions. We have a good potential on players so once it’s embedded we will go and we will drive, and I’m sure we will achieve the targets we have set for this season.
“That is always winning trophies and finishing as high as possible of course in the league because that is definitely a very important purpose for us.”
Ten Hag said he is “not anxious” about getting the sack if United’s results go against them this week, with trips against Porto in the Europa League and Aston Villa in the Premier League.
“I’m not thinking about it, I’m not anxious. We are together,” he said. “We created a togetherness in the summer with the ownership and the leadership.
“We made this agreement and we were all behind it. We also know the strategy, young players in a transition period.
“They also know in the end when we are May, in all my last six seasons, always there were trophies. That is what we are also now aiming for.”