Erik ten Hag says a failure to take chances meant his Manchester United “didn’t kill” opponents Newcastle United at Old Trafford.
The Dutch manager saw his side waste two great late chances in a 0-0 draw. Fred turned a Marcus Rashford cross wide after the England striker had taken the ball round Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope.
Then, with virtually the final touch, Rashford headed Casemiro’s cross across goal despite being unmarked.
“We broke them but we didn’t kill them,” said Ten Hag. “Newcastle are one of the most physical teams in the league. They all had cramp and we didn’t because we were good on the ball and let them run.
“We had the chances, 15 attempts. But our strikers will score a lot. I’m confident about that.”
The United boss added: “We score in almost every game. Today we didn’t but in the other games we score. It’s clear it’s about taking responsibility, I am convinced our strikers will take responsibility, but also other players, midfielders, and defenders can also score goals.”
Other than the home side’s late efforts, Joelinton had the best chance. But the Brazilian headed against a post with the goal at his mercy after his initial effort from Kieran Trippier’s cross came back off the crossbar.
Both Ten Hag and opposite number Eddie Howe felt their team were on the wrong end of crucial decisions from referee Craig Pawson.
Howe complained that striker Callum Wilson should have had a penalty after he fell under Raphael Varane’s first-half challenge.
Meanwhile, Manchester United’s players surrounded Pawson when he ruled Newcastle had not taken a free-kick before Cristiano Ronaldo raced up to nick possession away from Pope and tap into an empty net, believing Fabian Schar had rolled it to his goalkeeper.
Ten Hag went straight to Pawson at the final whistle and was still simmering when he spoke to the media afterwards.
“I don’t have a comment,” he said. “I shared that with them. Everyone has seen it.”
Howe was certain Schar only touched the ball to Pope so he could take the kick.
“It was clear Fabian wasn’t taking the kick and he was allowing Nick to do it,” he said. “Nick was waiting to deliver the free-kick. That would have been a very, very difficult decision to swallow.”
Newcastle have now drawn with both Manchester clubs and on a ground where they had not collected a point since 2015 and won once since 1972, this was one of their better efforts and shows the development of a team that was battling against relegation 12 months ago.
The news from Howe was not all good as Aleksander Isak has suffered a recurrence of the thigh problem that has kept him out for a month and the Sweden forward is now unlikely to play until the World Cup.
After scoring nine goals in their previous two games, Howe accepted this performance was not of the same fluidity. However, he knows there are two sides to football and was delighted to get one of them right.
“The hallmark of a good team is being hard to beat and difficult to score against,” he said. “This team works hard for each other. We don’t carry anyone and there is an understanding of what we are delivering. We lost that little bit of zip but overall it was a positive day for us.”