Ten Hag appeared to give himself some breathing room after his team produced an impressive defensive display in a goalless draw at Aston Villa before the international break. However, they remained very toothless in attack - a story of their season so far.

United have failed to score in six of their last 11 Premier League games, including in four of the last five league outings. They are also severely underperforming their XG, they are worst in the league for it.

Ten Hag isn't concerned about the lack of goals, saying: "Underneath I see good things, good patterns and good stats - that confirms we are in a good direction but the ranking is not lying. We are where we are and that's not good enough.

"I think the players do well, we won last season. Maybe you forgot and when we face problems sometimes we have to line up teams that were not in the right balance because the players were not available.

"But, in general, the players do perform well and you see now we have to start scoring and that part is the most important part in football. If you want to win games you have to score goals. That part we have to improve.

"We are entering the final third, we are entering the box, we are coming in good positions to score but now we have to step up with the most important part is to net."