Manchester United begin their UEFA Europa League campaign at home against Eredivisie side Twente, providing United gaffer Erik Ten Hag with a reunion with his beloved Dutch outfit.
Ten Hag came through the youth ranks with Twente before going on to make over 200 appearances as a player with the Tukkers ahead of his management days.
The 54-year-old revealed that he follows Twente’s games as a fan and that he would have preferred to have a different opposition.
“Of all the teams, Twente is the team that I follow the most. I watch them as a fan, as a supporter, not as an analyst. It’s a different way of watching their games,” the Dutchman said.
“I would have preferred to have played against somebody else. It’s not nice to have to hurt something you love,” the United head coach added.
United come into the game on the back of a 0-0 stalemate at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace in the Premier League and stand eleventh in the English top-flight with 7 points in 5 outings thus far.
However, United had posted a 7-0 hammering of Barnsley in the EFL Cup and a 3-0 triumph over Southampton in the Premiership in the lead up to the game in London.
Ten Hag opined that his side are capable of finding the back of the net but need to be a bit more lethal inside the danger area.
“Concerned? We create a lot of chances in the first games of the season. Last week we scored seven against Barnsley, so we are capable of scoring many goals,” he said.
“But it’s a part of the game we have to be better in, we have to improve and kill more in the box,” the Dutchman added.
Ten Hag also weighed in on the hotly-debated topic of player workload with the calendar getting more and more congested with the expansion of the continental events and the FIFA Club World Cup.
“The format I think we have to take this experience and then judge,” Ten Hag said.
“There are too many games. It’s clear. Too many competitions,” he continued.
“For the top players, they are overloaded and this is not good for football. At the end of the day, it’s maybe good for commercials but there is a limit. It’s almost unavoidable that players get injured because of the overload from so many games.”
The Dutchman suggested that an overall change in the ecosystem was the way to deal with such issues.
“I think as a club alone you can’t change this. It’s more about the total industry,” he reflected.
“At the end of the day, it’s financial. Also, we are professional, so revenues have to come, but we have to balance this out,” he concluded.