Erik Ten Hag’s first match since who left Manchester United could not have gone worse – with the German media who are already running on the new Bayer Leverkusen boss.
Ten Hag left United last year after a bad start of the 2024/25 season despite the victory of the FA Cup months earlier. He stayed unemployed until this summer, when he was announced as the successor of Xabi Alonso – who left Leverkusen to take care of Real Madrid.
Leverkusen won the Bundesliga two years ago and finished second behind Bayern Munich last season. However, they lost the influential pair Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong against Liverpool and Ten Hag must find a way to replace their talents in its first role since the reception of the United bag.
However, the beginning of the life of Ten Hag in the Bayarena could barely have faded, with a strong defeat against the under 20s of the Brazilian Giants Flamengo. A bad start of the new goalkeeper Mark Flekken saw him replaced before half-time, with men of ten hag 4-0 at the break. Their consolation of the 70th minute occurred after a fifth for the young Flamengo, and the task of a tense tenly was painfully clear.
The Dutchman came out by fighting after the match, insisting that he does not care about the results of friendly games. “The result seems bad, but I don’t really care about the pre-season results,” he said.
“We should never lose, even by a big margin, but it was important for me not to lose players,” continued Ten Hag. “It would have been better to play the game later.”
However, the German media expressed their concern concerning the chances of Leverkusen under Ten Hag, qualifying the defeat of “debacle” and “sub-parlans”. Ball wrote: “Of course, it was” just “a test. But long and lower performance showed how much work the successor of Alonso will have to do.”
They recognized the young XI of Leverkusen who was mastered early, with more experienced reinforcements that arrived for the last half hour, but Bild said that the performance before it was “terrible”.
Ten Hag said he saw positive signs when his most recognized players were presented, but the overwhelming defeat is a clear reminder of what to do to keep his new side in the title after Alonso’s departure.
(Tagstotranslate) Erik Ten Hag (T) Bayer Leverkusen (T) Manchester United (T) Bundesliga