TRANSCRIPT IN FULL: Ten Hag's Forest Press Conference

Manchester United have been under the microscope this week following the conclusion of the club’s internal investigation into Mason Greenwood. What are your thoughts on the process and the outcome?

Look, we are not where we want to be with our team. I have a lot of work. I have a lot of focus on my team and so I focus on the players who are available.

Were you expecting Mason Greenwood to be available to you? Did you want him to be?

As I said, I only have statements about our performance, our squad and where we have to improve because it’s clear we have to improve and I have to put every effort in to getting the team to perform.

With that in mind, has this been a challenging week? You’ve obviously lost two important players to injuries on top of everything else?

Yeh, but that is the situation. It’s normal. Top football. You go to the limits. Injuries coming up. Of course, it’s always disappointing, but you have to deal with it and therefore you construct a squad and we can deal with it.

Can I just ask you, throughout this process, have you spoken at all to Mason Greenwood?

As I said, I focus on the current squad and the players who are available.

Is Rasmus Hojlund available?

Not for tomorrow.

How near is he?

Near. Today was the first time he came into team training. So next week we expect him to do a full week with all the team trainings. So he’s very near to make the squad.

In terms of the injuries that you mentioned a moment ago, can you bring us any more detail on Mason Mount and Luke Shaw as to what the exact problems are and how long you expect to be without them?

We can’t do that as it’s personal these days. There will be for some period, absences. Luke will be longer than Mason.

So are you thinking weeks or months? I understand you can’t give the exact detail from what you said?

No, but what I said, Luke will be longer. And Mason, I think quicker.

Obviously, at left-back, you also have Tyrell Malacia injured at the moment. Do you have an update on his situation? How soon will he be back?

It will also take a few weeks before he will be back.

So do you think you have the solutions in the squad currently to cope with that?

Oh, definitely. We have the solutions in our squad to cope with that. We thought before the season about this scenario, what could happen. You hope to avoid the scenario that’s also clear. But if it happens, you have to be ready for it and we are ready to deal with it.

Do you understand why Manchester United fans do want to know your position on what’s happened with Mason Greenwood?

So once again, what Manchester United fans expect is Manchester United winning. And I’m responsible for that. And I have to put all my effort and all my focus in the current players who are available and in the current squad and make us play better than we do now.

Thinking about the play on the pitch, with Mason Mount injured, that midfield three at times against Tottenham looked like it might have been overrun slightly. How are you working to address that?

You always have to make clinical analysis and that assessment is not right. It’s not about the midfield, it was about the back and it was about the front and that’s why we were open. Nothing to do with the midfield, but I already said that straight after the game.

There were some fans criticising the fitness of some players. Casemiro got called out a bit. Is he fully fit at the moment?

If you see the numbers, you see he’s fully fit. Of our fitness, I don’t have any doubts they can do it but after 35 minutes against Spurs, they didn’t do it anymore. But after the first game, we were top, ranked first across the Premier League for fitness state.

And just on a player who has been linked away from the club, Eric Bailly. Are you able to tell us anything about a potential move to Marseille at all?

When we have news, we will give it straight away, but we don’t have it at this moment so we can’t say anything about it.

There’s been a bit of criticism of Bruno’s captaincy from high profile pundits, especially when complaining about the penalty appeal. Do you back him? Do you understand his appeal? Is it just his passion for the club that we see?

Of course I back him. I think he also has to make his point and it was justified. It was a clear penalty. So I think you can express it, but also, don’t get distracted from it. You have to focus on your job.

How have you found it since he took the armband permanently, how have you found him as your captain?

Last season when he did it as a replacement. He did already brilliantly. And now as well. It’s really an inspiration. He is an example for the team. He has the personality. So, yeh, I think he’s a very good captain.

I understand you don’t want to talk about Mason Greenwood, but given that you can’t play him now, do you feel that you’re short in attack?

No, because we have when I count, seven front players and we have also coming up young talents, as we have seen in the pre-season, who are getting close.

One of those players, Antony has struggled recently. There has been allegations against him that he’s responded to. Is that the concern for the club? Is that an issue to deal with?

No. The outcome in Brazil was clear and he completed a good pre-season. He’s also scoring some goals. He is more often he is in the situations where he is a threat for the opponent, but not only a threat. He’s in the key moments there where he should have been. Now we have to finish. In pre-season he scored two goals and, also, I think, one assist. So I think he is in a good direction. And now he has to speed up because for us, good is not good enough. So don’t get distracted. Focus on football and on performing.

The transfer window closes next Friday. Do you hope to get more reinforcements in before the window? And with Rasmus Hojlund not yet available and the prospects of Greenwood coming back are now over, would a striker be in your thoughts?

No, because Rasmus will be available from next week on and then we are with Rasmus, with Anthony Martial. We have coverage and also, of course, we have Rashy as well there. So we have enough players to cover and quality players to cover that position.

You said earlier that when you were asked about being overrun, that it was the front and the back – they were the problems. What specifically was it that those areas of the team weren’t doing?

They didn’t run. And when they did run, it was in the wrong moment and it was too late. Especially the front, they didn’t recover.

How disappointing is that? Because that’s part of your mantra. You’ve drill that into the players quite early on here, that they’re not not really not pressing. Why are they not doing that?

It happened. You can’t turn it around. It’s a demand here if you want to win games. And we were, for the first 35 minutes, we were so good in the game and we dominated the game totally. We should have scored a minimum once but I think two and they were nowhere, nothing. And then things happened in the game and then they got distracted, not doing the jobs anymore. And that’s not the demands from a Manchester United player, from our team and I’m not used to it from this team because they always do. And that is what the players and what the fans can expect. But we have to demand.

You lost three pre-season games, I know one of them was against Wrexham, with a sort junior team. You struggled against Wolves and lost against Spurs, why is that happening? Considering you have been here a year, you have won a trophy, the players know what you want, the game plan. Why has it been so flat, particularly in the competitive games in the Premier League?

So that’s what I say when I came in. We are in those games over the full course, we didn’t match the standards we had, but nevertheless we beat Wolves. We played the first 35 minutes, very good at Spurs. But you have to demand from Manchester United that you do it for 90 minutes and you do it every game, no matter what.

Did you become angry at your players for that?

I told them, I give them the feedback. This is not acceptable and we have to work as a team. We have to do it in togetherness and everyone individual has to take responsibility. We need accountable players.

But are they big enough to take that responsibility to accept criticism?

Oh yeh. So we are in the same boat. So I’m responsible for it. So me as well. We have to do that in togetherness and we have to face the first two games were not good enough. But still, we won one and from the other we can take the positives. If we do the right things in the first 35 minutes, we have a very good team and we will win games if everyone is doing their doing their job.

Gary O’Neil after the Wolves game said that he got an apology for the penalty at the end. Did you get one for the Spurs one after that?

It happened. And I know in football, sometimes the decisions are on your side, sometimes it’s against you. You have to accept it. Sometimes it’s annoying. You of course hope for a consistent line. But as I say, we have to accept it. And still, if the decision is against you, you still have to win.

Is it annoying that in one instance their manager got the apology, and you didn’t?

Make your own opinion.

Do you think there is a reason Luke and Mason picking up these muscle injuries early in the season? And does that affect what you’re now doing in the last week of the transfer window?

There’s always a reason but you can’t avoid it in top football. Players go to the limits and you see it across all kinds of teams, their injuries are coming. But it’s up to our job to do research, to find reasons and maybe you can learn from it to the future.

Will that affect what you do next week, with Luke being out?

It can be, because I think always we have to anticipate situations. So if there are opportunities, yes. But it has to be the right player. And otherwise we have to deal with the current squad. And, as I said before, I know we went through the scenarios before the season with our transfer strategy and if that happened, we have the solution.