Ten Hag brushes off boos for Højlund sub: ‘It was optimistic’

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United supervisor Erik ten Hag has tried to brush off the boos that greeted his willpower to substitute Rasmus Højlund all through the 3-1 defeat to Brighton.

A disastrous day for Ten Hag was made worse when his willpower to interchange Højlund with Anthony Martial inside the second half prompted loud boos from the home help. Afterwards, he insisted the response was all the way in which all the way down to Højlund’s optimistic effectivity on his full debut.

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“I imagine it was optimistic,” Ten Hag talked about. “You see the followers inside the first second in Earlier Trafford, the reception for [Højlund] was good. I imagine he carried out very correctly. It’s good they supply this signal, this message. It’s going to present Rasmus notion.”

Højlund, 20, nearly marked his first United start with a function nonetheless had a first-half equaliser dominated out by VAR. The £72 million ($89m) summer season season signing wanted to attend to make his debut after arriving from Atalanta with a once more hurt and Ten Hag talked about he was not capable of participating within the full 90 minutes in the direction of Brighton.

“All people is conscious of he bought right here in with a small scenario,” he added.

“We constructed him over the last three or 4 weeks nonetheless he’s not ready for a whole recreation and now we’ve got many video video games to play at transient uncover, so now we’ve got to assemble the well being.

“If he’ll get injured on account of he’s not capable of participating in 90 minutes then we’re quite a bit farther away than the place we want to be.”

Ten Hag was moreover quick to dismiss a suggestion the boos have been for Martial, who struggled to make an have an effect on after approaching.

“I imagine it was on account of Rasmus Højlund bought right here off nonetheless I don’t want to concentrate on that so I have no idea,” talked about Ten Hag.

“I imagine Anthony Martial last yr every time he carried out he had a extremely optimistic affect on our video video games. We even nearly misplaced no video video games with Anthony Martial on the pitch, so if that’s the precise truth, then I don’t understand on account of when he’s match he will definitely contribute.”