Dutchman Erik Ten Hag has won his first game as the Manchester United manager after he masterminded the impressive victory over Liverpool on Monday night. Ten Hag was the architect as Manchester United recorded a 2-1 win over their arch rivals to kick-start their ailing season. The former Ajax Amsterdam had masterminded a 4-0 win over Liverpool in a pre-season friendly clash this summer and he was able to reprise the outcome when the top two teams in English football met earlier this week.

Manchester United have been perennial underachievers since the exit of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson almost a decade ago and they turned to Dutchman Ten Hag this summer in the bid to reclaim their place at the top of English football. Things didn’t start well for Ten Hag and United after the first two league games of the season ended in defeats.

In his first competitive game as a Manchester United manager, Ten Hag watched on from the sidelines as German midfielder Pascal Gross emerged as the star of the show. Gross scored twice for Brighton and Hove Albion on the way to a 2-1 away win at the expense of Ten Hag and Manchester United. The second competitive game for Ten Hag as United manager was a lot more humiliating as his team crumbled to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of London team Brentford with the likes of new signing Ben Mee, Josh Da Silva, Bryan Mbeumo and Brian Jensen on the scoresheet for the Bees.

Ten Hag and Manchester United were able to recover from their bad start against Brigton and Brentford with the home win over the Reds thanks to the goals from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford either side of the half-time break, while Mohamed Salah scored the lone goal for the Reds during the game.