Erik ten Hag has joined Sir Alex Ferguson in setting an unfavorable record for Manchester United after overseeing the club’s worst-ever Champions League campaign.
On Tuesday night, Manchester United were eliminated from the Champions League by Bayern Munich, capping off an awful season for Erik ten Hag.
United were defeated 1-0 by Bayern Munich at Old Trafford, ensuring that they ended bottom of Group A with only four points from six games. They needed to overcome Bayern and hope that Copenhagen draw with Galatasaray in the other game to go to the knockout stages, but instead they went out with a whimper.
This was their seventh defeat at Old Trafford this season, and their 12th in 24 games in all competitions. It came from Kingsley Coman, who found the bottom corner in a second half in which United failed to register a single effort on goal.
Ten Hag declined to criticize his players’ efforts against Bayern, instead referring to earlier failures. United blew a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3 in Copenhagen in November, and then drew 3-3 in Istanbul with Galatasaray after leading 2-0 early on.
It was those defeats that ultimately put United in, as they became the first Premier League team to finish bottom of their Champions League group on two separate occasions. United first accomplished it in 2005/06, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s side took only six points from a group that included Villareal, Benfica, and Lille.
United drew 0-0 with Villarreal on both occasions, failed to beat Lille, and lost their last game 2-1 to Benfica to exit the Champions League in the group stage for the first time in 11 years. Such failure was unusual under Ferguson, but it is becoming a routine under Ten Hag, who is under intense pressure after United’s worst-ever performance in a Champions League group.
“I think they showed enough effort out there, the team did very good,” Ten Hag told TNT Sports after the Bayern loss. “We were very good in the pressing, in the defensive organisation and we had many ball recoveries especially in the second half. But we didn’t take the benefits from that and we played against a strong side. Bayern are a good team and even when they’re not in the game, they have to just use one moment of individual class and that happened today.
“We know we want to be more consistent and that’s down to me as a manager. I have to guide them and the players have to take the responsibility so we have to do that together.”
United now faces a challenging journey to Anfield on Sunday to face Liverpool in the Premier League. Ten Hag’s team is sixth in the table after a 3-0 home loss to Bournemouth last weekend.
