Olympique Lyonnais left back Nicolas Tagliafico has defended his former boss Erik ten Hag’s record as boss of Manchester United.
The Argentine played the entire 90 minutes of Lyon’s 2-2 draw with United last night in the quarter-final of the Europa League.
The 32 year old played under Ten Hag at Ajax for four years as both men joined in 2018 and left in 2022.
He was linked numerous times to a move to the Premier League to join United under Ten Hag but a move never materialised as the Old Trafford side’s interest was reportedly blocked by Lyon.
Speaking to The Daily Mail ahead of last night’s encounter, the fullback defended his former manager’s time at the club.
He stated that, “making that move from Ajax is not easy. United is a big club with big pressures.”
The World Cup winner was complimentary of Ten Hag’s skills as a manager claiming that “Erik is a smart guy, very good on tactics and strategy.”
The big difference between United and Ajax according to Tagliafico however, was that at the Dutch giants, there were numerous young players who were willing to listen to Ten Hag more carefully than perhaps the big names at Old Trafford.
He elaborated, “but at Ajax he had young players who would follow his moves, when you meet new players with more experience. It’s not always easy to get them to follow in the same way.”
He did admit that such a drop off in standard from his time at Ajax was “difficult to understand fully because I wasn’t in the dressing room.”
The 32 year old also criticised current United manager Ruben Amorim for his apparent inability to get the best out of his fellow Argentine Alejandro Garnacho.
He will likely next be in action against United when Lyon travel to Old Trafford for the second leg of the quarter final, with the tie evenly poised at 2-2 after Andre Onana’s horror show.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
