How Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe reacted to Manchester United’s woeful Brentford display

Erik ten Hag’s side were very fortunate not to lose on Saturday (Picture: Getty)

Manchester United’s poor performance in their 1-1 draw against Brentford has ‘gone down badly’ with the club’s new minority owners as pressure remains on Erik ten Hag.

The Red Devils were incredibly fortunate to leave west London with a point after being on the back foot throughout Saturday’s match, with Brentford racking up an astonishing 31 shots before finally scoring in the 99th minute.

Thomas Frank’s side hit the woodwork three times and had 80 touches in the penalty area, while United have now given up 106 shots in their last four matches – or 26.5 per game on average.

A dramatic 4-3 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final just before the international break had hinted that United had turned a corner, but now it feels as though the result was simply papering over the cracks.

According to The Telegraph, United’s dismal performance against Brentford has not been well received in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s camp, with Ineos concerned by several recent performances.

In addition to the meek showing at the Community Stadium, which ‘went down badly’, United’s performance in a 2-1 defeat at home to Fulham five weeks ago was also ‘dimly received’.

On that occasion United were timid for much of the first half and fell behind to a Calvin Bassey strike in the 65th minute, before laying siege to their opponents’ goal and finally forcing a breakthrough thanks to Harry Maguire in the 89th minute.

United nabbed a scarcely deserved point away at Brentford (Picture: Getty)

But a breakaway attack right at the death saw Alex Iwobi snatch all three points in the seventh minute of added time.

United actually performed pretty well statistically in that particular contest, racking up 21 shots (nine on target) and enjoying 57 per cent possession, though a lot of that pressure was applied in the closing stages and Fulham were ahead on rolling xG (Expected Goals) until the 75th minute.

Ten Hag now faces two more crunch matches this week against Chelsea and Liverpool and defeat in both of those could end their top-four hopes for good, though the under-pressure Dutchman has been defiant about his side’s below-par performances and the leakiness of their back-line.

Probed on whether he is concerned by how many shots his side are conceding each game, Ten Hag said after the Brentford draw: ‘As long as we get results, no.

‘I’ll explain it once more. We defended low at times, because Brentford are very direct, we lost many second balls, and then you have to defend the box and that is what we did quite well.

‘And we had a great goalkeeper, he was brilliant as well, so we have to say that.

‘I think our results are quite consistent from January on, but yeah we concede shots. But we don’t concede too many goals. And we’re creating chances – with Rasmus Hojlund big chances – and we scored a goal, and it’s all about bringing that over the line.’

Asked if a future title challenge can be sustained on such leaky performances against teams like Brentford, Ten Hag hit back: ‘Don’t lower the performances from Brentford, because I saw them against Man City and City were also lucky to win that game.

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‘And I have seen them against Liverpool and in the first 35 minutes Brentford should have taken the lead. So don’t express this [opinion about Brentford].

‘We should have done this better, I’m not happy with the performance, there should be no misunderstanding [about that]. And the players are also disappointed by the performance.

‘We should be consistent in the way we take a game, and go into a game, and perform and show more aggressiveness especially.’

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