Erik ten Hag urged Manchester United to use the “injustice” of Ethan Pinnock’s goal to inspire their comeback against Brentford.
Pinnock scored for Brentford with a header from a corner in the fifth minute of first-half injury time after Matthijs de Ligt was directed to the sidelines for a head injury evaluation.
De Ligt had already left the pitch twice for treatment from the United medical staff, but blood was still visible as he prepared for the corner.
Both Ten Hag and Ruud van Nistelrooy faced repercussions for their reactions; the United manager maintained that referee Sam Barrott made an error in telling De Ligt to leave the field since the blood was dried.
“It was dried blood; he had already been treated for that injury,” Ten Hag stated. “Just dried blood.” None of us could explain why he had to come off.
“I approached Matthijs, and he said, ‘it is only dried blood so I have to come off, I do not know why.’” Brentford excels at corners, so failing to defend one is particularly frustrating.
“This is speculative; we can never be certain (if it sparked United’s comeback). However, we were definitely upset at halftime. Even though our strategy wasn’t perfect, we managed the game. We created some chances, and it felt unfair after how we had performed; we limited their opportunities.
De Ligt told me he was fine; that’s what he said. When he came off, I asked him if there was any issue. No, he was completely fine, and there was never any question about taking him off.”
Just two minutes into the second half, Alejandro Garnacho equalized; Rasmus Hojlund scored the winning goal in the 62nd minute, helping United move up to ninth in the Premier League.
After going 317 minutes without a league goal, United has now won as many league matches as they have lost. Ten Hag asserts that the team’s primary challenge this season has been scoring goals.
Since recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during United’s first pre-season game against Arsenal in Los Angeles, Hojlund has found the net in two of his three starts.
