Man United still 'together', insists under-pressure Erik ten Hag after Tottenham defeat

United have lost successive Premier League home games 3-0, leading to renewed scrutiny on the manager

Erik ten Hag has called on Manchester United to 'bounce back' from their disappointing start to the season. AFP

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said the club remain "on one page" after Sunday's shambolic defeat to Tottenham Hotspur further increased the pressure on the Dutchman.

United have now fallen to successive 3-0 Premier League losses at Old Trafford having lost by the same score to fierce rivals Liverpool earlier this month. Since then, United were also held to a goalless draw at Crystal Palace and played out a 1-1 draw at home against FC Twente in their Europa League opener. Ten Hag's side are 12th in the Premier League table after six games, winning just twice.

Ten Hag was given a reprieve over the summer by new minority owner Jim Ratcliffe, whose team conducted an internal inquiry into the club's football operations and decided to stick with the Dutchman following the FA Cup final triumph in May.

However, despite squad reinforcements totalling around £200 million this summer, there have been few signs of progress to the league form that saw United finish eighth last season, leading to renewed scrutiny on Ten Hag.

"I’m not thinking about this," Ten Hag said when asked if his position was under pressure. "We all made this decision to stay together, as an ownership, as a leadership group, in the summer. We made the decision from a clear review, what we have to improve as an organisation and how also we want to construct a squad.

"But also we knew it would take some time because of how the window went, some players late in, like [Manuel] Ugarte, we have to integrate him now. We had to make some improvement in organisation, we still have to deal with some injuries, also from impact players, and I think we will get better there.

"We need some time. We are all on one page, one boat, together, the ownership, the leadership group, the staff and players group as well. I don’t have that concern."

United never recovered from a terrible start as Brennan Johnson tapped in from Micky van de Ven's storming run through the heart of the home side's defence after three minutes. It was a goal reminiscent of the one conceded against Twente when a defender carved through the United midfield and defence, and Ten Hag admitted it was unacceptable that his team had not learned from that mistake.

"It was clear we started the game very poor," he said. "We are very disappointed when you concede again a goal like this, it shouldn’t happen, and especially when you address it so loud and clear how you have to deal with such situations."

United then lost captain Bruno Fernandes to a straight red card before half time. Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke then gave Tottenham's dominance a fair reflection in the scoreline in the second half.

While Ten Hag claimed the red card had a "big impact in the game", United were already being outplayed by 11 men and were perhaps fortunate that Spurs captain and chief goal threat Son Heung-min was absent through injury.

The United manager has now called on his players to respond in their next game away to Porto in the Europa League, followed by a tough away trip to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.

"Of course, there’s always a new game, there will be a new day," he said. "You have to learn as a team – it can’t happen in four days now; twice the defender of the opponent can dribble through the whole park without being stopped. Then things are impossible at top football, you can’t make such mistakes, so definitely, we have to address this. But we will bounce back."

As United reel from their stuttering start to the season, Tottenham have bounced back from their own minor dip, responding to successive defeats by twice scoring three goals in wins over Brentford and United.

“It was a great win, but an even better performance,” Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou told the club's website. “I thought the lads were outstanding today, from the first minute they were at it, really aggressive without the ball, positive with the ball, won our duels, aggressive in everything we did. I’m just super proud of the boys’ efforts.

“Their red card is a consequence of our dominance, we put them under so much pressure, they couldn’t really get out of their half. We probably should have been out of sight by that stage with the chances we had, but even after that, against 10 men, I still felt we controlled the game really well. There is no doubt we deserved that victory.”

Tottenham, eighth in the Premier League standings, are next in action in the Europa League with a trip to Hungary to face Ferencvarosi on Thursday before resuming league duties away to Brighton on Sunday.