Manchester United’s shocking defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League did not sit well with coach Erik ten Hag, who blasted his players’ “unacceptable” performance. Ten Hag criticized his team’s lack of fight, character, and will to win in the 3-0 defeat at the Sánchez-Pizjuán, which completed a 5-2 aggregate victory for the Spanish side.

“We have to start games better, [with] more desire, passion, composure on the ball,” the coach said. “And when we have a setback we have to deal with it and get back on the ball. We have to be better. It is not about the playing skills. It is about character. They had more willingness to win and that can’t be: I think it is unacceptable.”

Ten Hag added that this kind of performance was not a one-off occurrence, and that his team needs to do better if they want to win trophies and be successful. Enhance your experience of watching the Europa League with attractive betting odds from NextBet.

“Everyone can see that the demands and the standard has to be higher in a club such as Manchester United,” he said. “Too often we have a really poor performance and that can’t be.”

Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen echoed Ten Hag’s sentiments, admitting that his team didn’t show up from the opening whistle. “We didn’t really get in the game from the first minute,” Eriksen said. “I think we tried, but today, we gave them a lot of opportunities to finish us off.”

The loss was particularly frustrating for Ten Hag, who said he has had similar experiences with City, Liverpool, and Brentford, but his team always bounced back. However, in this instance, he felt that they had let themselves and their fans down. Follow NextBet Sports to get all updates from the Europa League.

“We have to pick the players up. But we also have to face that we let ourselves down, we have let the fans down. If you want to win trophies, if you want to be successful, you need character,” Ten Hag said.