Ten Hag: 'Criticizing me is like looking at a cow's butt'

"It's always easy to judge things as it happened. Where I grew up, it was called looking at the butt of a cow. That's right. The neighborhood where I live in the Netherlands calls it looking at a cow's butt, an easy task. Try when a player gets a red card. There will be people saying: "Why don't you replace him?" or "Why do you take such risks?", Ten Hag said at the press conference before the Nottingham match in round 31. English Premier League.

In the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals in the middle of the week, Man Utd played at home and led Sevilla two goals in the middle of the first half thanks to a double from Marcel Sabitzer. But personnel problems made it difficult for them in the second half and then conceded two own goals in the last 10 minutes from Tyrell Malacia and Harry Maguire.

According to some assessments, coach Ten Hag made a mistake when withdrawing Bruno Fernandes and Antony from the field. The fact that the Dutch coach used up all five substitutions before the 81st minute also made Man Utd end the match with 10 men, because Lisandro Martinez was reluctant to leave the field due to injury.

However, the 53-year-old military leader explained that his two substitution decisions had good reasons. Fernandes and Antony both received yellow cards, and were ignored by the referee Felix Zwayer for behaviors that could get them sent off. For Fernandes, it was a situation to prevent the opponent from bringing the ball back to the field, and Antony got into a scuffle with Sevilla defender Marcos Acuna.

"Because Bruno threw the ball away, one more mistake he would get a yellow card. The referee saved him because in the first half, the Sevilla player was shown a yellow card for the same error," Ten Hag analyzed. "Antony finally understood, but he shouldn't have put himself in such a situation. Everything is going as we want. The team leads 2-0 and plays well. So don't rush into the head-to-head matches. Multiply by the opponent. It's not necessary. He annoys the opponent and risks being sent off. I don't want to take the risk."

The result of a 2-2 draw at home makes Man Utd face a challenge in the second leg in Spain, taking place in the middle of next week. But before that, they need to win at the bottom of the group Nottingham on April 16 to stay in the top 4 of the Premier League.