LONDON – Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said his team can still make up the eight points between them and Aston Villa to achieve a top-four English Premier League finish, despite their shock home loss to Fulham on Feb 24.
Alex Iwobi scored deep in stoppage time as Fulham shocked a sub-par United 2-1, the London side’s first win at Old Trafford since 2003 and only their second in 61 years.
United had not lost in their last five league games, but the optimism that had been growing around Old Trafford was dented by Iwobi’s 97th-minute goal.
“I said from January on we are (playing) finals, and we won many finals. Now we lost one final,” said ten Hag.
United are sixth in the table on 44 points after 26 games, while Villa, who beat Nottingham Forest 4-2 on Feb 24, have 52.
United’s loss came three days after new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe vowed to knock arch-rivals Manchester City and Liverpool off their perch.
Ten Hag said the future remained positive, pointing out that the team have been hard-hit by injuries, with striker Rasmus Hojlund, who had scored in United’s six previous league games, and defender Luke Shaw the latest absentees.
“You have to see the bigger picture and the bigger picture looks very good,” ten Hag said.
“We have to catch up in certain positions, get the injuries back, because then we will be more in balance. We are going in the right direction. And when we have the players of the squad available, we have a very good team.”
Former captain Harry Maguire agreed that Hojlund was sorely missed.
“He has been big focal point for us, but it is up to us to find the solutions and the areas we need to improve on. It’s the story of our season, we’ve been injury hit – as other teams have – and we need to find a solution quick,” Maguire said.
Fulham finally took one of their chances midway through the second half, when Calvin Bassey lashed home his first goal for the Cottagers from a corner.
United looked to have snatched a point against the run of play late on when Maguire tapped in after Bernd Leno spilled Bruno Fernandes’ effort.
But there was another twist in the tale as Adama Traore left Maguire trailing in his wake before teeing up Iwobi to curl inside Andre Onana’s near post.
Maguire admitted “naive” United paid the price for being too attack-minded in the final minutes.
He said: “On the balance of play, we didn’t do enough in the first 60 minutes or so. We started the game not great...
“To be a goal behind, I thought our reaction was brilliant, especially in the last 30 minutes and when we equalised, probably only one team was going to win it. We were probably naive in the end by throwing too many bodies forward and getting done on the counter-attack.” REUTERS, AFP
