Erik ten Hag has admitted his Man United aspect “shouldn’t be 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 crew,” he informed reporters on Thursday, after a summer season that noticed United journey to Norway, Scotland and the USA earlier than their Neighborhood 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 crew from it and that crew shouldn’t be prepared, however the league begins and there are extra managers who take care of this drawback.
“We undoubtedly have this drawback, however we nonetheless have some guidelines, some ideas, and we now have to make a begin.
“We are able to’t conceal ourselves, we are able to’t run away from it, we now have to take care of it.”
Ten Hag, who has new signings Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Joshua Zirkzee accessible 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 had 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 alternative assertion to Ten Hag: “We’re prepared.”
“I feel it could be excellent if after 4 or 5 weeks of pre-season you’re already near perfection, which could be very tough to achieve,” he stated, reflecting Ten Hag’s view.
“And a few of them have solely been in for 10 or 12 days. However like I stated, many issues have stayed the identical and the gamers have stayed the identical.
“So, we’re prepared for the sport tomorrow.
“For those who discuss the place in the long run we need to go to, there are nonetheless so much, 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 identical reply, that there are quite a lot of issues to enhance, as a result of it’s inconceivable for gamers to achieve perfection.
“We’re all the time aiming for this however there are all the time methods to enhance the crew.”
One supervisor already making ready to deflect criticism and one other prepared for the problem forward – should you didn’t already know, you’d absolutely guess Ten Hag was the brand new arrival and Slot the coach heading into his third season in cost.
