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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

Erik ten Hag issues familiar Manchester United gripe after Wolves win

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has urged his side to become more clinical in front of goal following the 2-0 win over Wolves.

United are seeking to confirm qualification for next season's Champions League and they took another step towards securing that with the three points against the West Midlands side. Anthony Martial put United ahead in the first half after being found in the box by Antony.

The Reds eventually put the result beyond doubt in second half injury time. Bruno Fernandes slipped in substitute Alejandro Garnacho and the teenager fired home off the post to secure the points for ten Hag's men to maintain their hopes of qualifying for Europe's premier club competition next season.

READ MORE: Manchester United player ratings vs Wolves as Raphael Varane and Bruno Fernandes good

It took United until just before full-time to make the points truly safe. A big reason for this was the form of Daniel Bentley in the Wolves goal.

The stopper made great saves to deny Jadon Sancho and Antony in the second half. It would have been a greater margin of victory for the hosts had he not been in such good form.

For United boss Ten Hag, though, he felt his side was 'very good' at making Bentley man of the match and it is not the first time he has seen that from his team this season. He believes United did the same on the road against Brighton with Jason Steele in inspired form on that occasion, but the Dutchman wants his team to be more clinical in front of goal moving forwards and that work will take place to correct that.

Ten Hag said: "We are very good at making the opponents’ goalkeeper man of the match. We did at Brighton and we did today.

"We have to be more clinical. We have to work on that conversion, definitely."

The Manchester Evening News understands Ten Hag has made signing a prolific centre-forward his top priority this summer, with Tottenham's Harry Kane his number one target.

It is not the first time this season that Ten Hag has lamented his side's failure to find the back of the net.

Following the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in April, he said: "Solid performance and a well-deserved win. The only criticism is that it should have been a higher score. It had to be 3 or 4-0. We missed a lot of chances.

"Always you want to score and you want to kill the game in an early moment. In big games, you don't create so many chances so you have to score them."

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