Manchester United won the first game of the pre-season against Leeds this evening, with youngster Noam Emeran and Joe Hugill getting on the scoresheet. Speaking to MUTV after the game, Ten Hag spoke of how happy he was with the team showing on the pitch what they’ve been working on in training.
It’s the first game and we have seen some good things, some good stuff, but we’ve already trained over the last year so we have a good foundation. You can see that in the game. Also, some young lads came in and they fit in. We are now one week back in training, we have presented the rules and the principles, and we have seen some good stuff.
Emeran is 20 and Hugill is 19, but both were able to take chances after the seniors spurned several opportunities in the first half. Ten Hag was impressed with the youngsters making the most of their moment to shine.
It’s a big moment when you have come up to the first team. You deserve game time because over long years you’ve worked for it, and then in that moment, in a nice stadium, with a good crowd, and then coming in and scoring and winning the game. It’s very nice.
Lisandro Martinez picked up a serious injury midway through April which saw him miss the climax of the season but returned to the first team today.
Licha was injured for the last part of the season and you can see he’s on his way back. He worked very hard in the summer and now he’s back in the game, but he’s a little bit lack of rhythm.
Martinez played alongside Varane, who wore the captain’s armband in the first half, and Ten Hag couldn’t sing the Frenchman’s praises enough.
He’s fantastic. Fantastic personality. From the first moment I met him, but I’ve known him over the years, with all he achieved at Real Madrid and with France, that’s unbelievable. When you are young, you can hardly believe you can achieve such things, but Rapha did. He has so much respect from everyone around Manchester United.
