‘Delusional’, ‘Love this optimism’ – Man City fans react as Ten Hag claims United are ‘on the way up’ despite chastening defeat

Erik ten Hag has insisted Manchester United are “on the way up”, despite being outclassed by Manchester City at Old Trafford.

On a chastening day for United, the manager claimed his team had performed “very well” and defended his unusual team selection.

Ten Hag chose Jonny Evans at centre‑back over Raphaël Varane and Victor Lindelöf at left-back in favour of Sergio Reguilón as part of a back four that was unable to cope with City.

After the match he argued that his defenders had “played very well” in what was a fifth defeat in 10 Premier League games, leaving them in eighth position, eight points off the top four and 11 behind the leaders, Tottenham.

Ten Hag said: “When you see the first half it is toe-to-toe and just the penalty changes the game, but even then we could have returned in the game with the shot of Scott McTominay just before half-time.

“For chances it was very toe-to-toe and also in the previous games against them in the FA Cup final and January it was very close. So the probability that we could win was there in all the games.”

United beat City at Old Trafford last season but lost the Cup final 2-1. “If you see all three games we played very well against them,” said Ten Hag, who pointed to wrong choices made by his players to allow City their second goal here.

These Ten Hag’s comments shared on Twitter by City Xtra attracted plenty of attention from the club’s supporters.

@jmart604: “Two losses and a “win” that was handed to them on a horrendous missed offside “very good””

@may21cheekee: “Delusional Ten Hag.”

@Shady_obbs8: “If this is good, I wonder how they are when they are bad.”

@davbanac: “if he calls this very good PLEASE keep him in”

@Cityanapolis: “Love this optimism. Club needs to stick by him”

@drikson: “He’s right, please give him another 5 years extension”

@TheSkyIsBlue03: “Please tell your players to play the exact same way next time at the Etihad..we want Man City to make a statement win by winning 10-0.”