Erik ten Hag has admitted his Man United aspect “is just not prepared” for the beginning of the Premier League, with Arne Slot‘s view on Liverpool the exact opposite.
Man United kick off the brand new Premier League season with the go to of Fulham on Friday night time, with Ten Hag pessimistic about his aspect’s possibilities.
“It wasn’t the pre-season the place you possibly can, in 5, six weeks, work on the group,” he advised reporters on Thursday, after a summer season that noticed United journey to Norway, Scotland and the USA earlier than their Group Protect loss to Man Metropolis.
“It’s very difficult. We had the USA tour squad, then we add the gamers who did the Euros and Copa America, then now our new signings.
“We have now to make a group from it and that group is just not prepared, however the league begins and there are extra managers who take care of this drawback.
“We positively have this drawback, however we nonetheless have some guidelines, some rules, and we’ve to make a begin.
“We are able to’t cover ourselves, we are able to’t run away from it, we’ve to take care of it.”
Ten Hag, who has new signings Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Joshua Zirkzee obtainable however not the injured Leny Yoro, Luke Shaw, Rasmus Hojlund, Tyrell Malacia and Victor Lindelof, is already downplaying expectations.
It couldn’t be additional faraway from Slot’s view on Liverpool’s curtain raiser at Ipswich on Saturday, having handled the identical points in pre-season.
The Reds have been with out Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz after they travelled to the US.
Lucky although they’re with accidents, with no gamers absent, they haven’t managed so as to add to their squad within the switch market.
However talking in his personal pre-match press convention on Friday, Slot made the other assertion to Ten Hag: “We’re prepared.”
“I feel it could be good if after 4 or 5 weeks of pre-season you might be already near perfection, which could be very troublesome to succeed in,” he mentioned, reflecting Ten Hag’s view.
“And a few of them have solely been in for 10 or 12 days. However like I mentioned, many issues have stayed the identical and the gamers have stayed the identical.
“So, we’re prepared for the sport tomorrow.
“In the event you discuss the place ultimately we wish to go to, there are nonetheless rather a lot, lot, lot of issues to enhance.
“However I feel if I’m right here for 3, 4, 5, six or seven years I’ll nonetheless provide the similar reply, that there are a number of issues to enhance, as a result of it’s unimaginable for gamers to succeed in perfection.
“We’re at all times aiming for this however there are at all times methods to enhance the group.”
One supervisor already getting ready to deflect criticism and one other prepared for the problem forward – for those who didn’t already know, you’d certainly guess Ten Hag was the brand new arrival and Slot the coach heading into his third season in cost.
