Man Utd chief executive Omar Berrada says Erik ten Hag has club’s full backing

Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada has insisted Erik ten Hag has his and the club’s full backing and remains the right man to take the club forward.

United triggered a one-year contract extension for Ten Hag in the summer, but only after considering alternatives in the wake of an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League and unexpected FA Cup success, beating Manchester City in the final.

But there were fresh questions over the amount of progress United have made under Ten Hag following Sunday’s poor 3-0 home defeat to rivals Liverpool, already United’s second league defeat of the fledgling campaign after they lost 2-1 at Brighton last weekend.

Speaking alongside new sporting director Dan Ashworth shortly before kick off against Liverpool, Berrada said it would take more than a couple of bad results to shake the club’s belief in their manager.

“Do we still believe in Erik? Absolutely,” he said. “We think Erik is the right coach for us and we’re fully backing him.”

Ten Hag’s contract was extended before either Berrada or Ashworth had taken up their positions this summer but both said they were happy with the decision.

Ashworth said: “I’ve really enjoyed working with Erik for the last eight weeks.

“I see my job is to support him in every way I possibly can and whether that’s operationally, whether that’s with recruitment, whether that’s with medical, whether that’s with psychology, whether that’s training ground flow, it’s just to take as much of that off him to allow him to fully focus on the training pitch and the match tactical plan to deliver success for Manchester United.”

Ashworth’s first few weeks in the job were dominated by the transfer window, in which United signed Matthijs De Ligt, Manuel Ugarte,