ERIK TEN HAG gave a press conference to preview Manchester United’s Carabao Cup tie with Leicester on Wednesday - even though he was sacked today.
The Dutchman spoke to the media directly after his press conference following Sunday’s controversial 2-1 loss away to West Ham.
Yet bizarrely, Ten Hag found himself axed more than TWO DAYS before the Leicester game.
Unfortunately, club staging press conferences directly after games - to preview a match a few days later - is something which has crept into the game.
It is actually a bad idea.
And it is only to save club media staff and the manager from staging a press conference the day before the game, which has always been the case.
But if a manager attempts to preview a game three days later, there is always a danger that the situation could change such as a key player getting injured or something important happening at the club in general.
Yet this situation was particularly unusual - and the manager who delivered a pre-match press conference ended up getting the boot.
At the conference, which was due to be released at 1.30pm tomorrow, Ten Hag revealed his frustration with Luke Shaw’s injury nightmare.
Ten Hag also stressed that he would consider it a success if he won the Carabao Cup for United, meaning he would have won a trophy for a third season in a row.
He stressed that the most important thing was to win silverware, above anything else - and pointed out the fact that United still had the chance of winning four trophies - even though he has been sacked with United 14th in the table.
The Dutchman certainly did not come across like someone who knew they were about to lose their job.
Ten Hag's final Man Utd press conference in full...
QUESTION: Erik, do you expect any players to be available for Wednesday after coming back from injury?
Ten Hag: "No, I don’t think so."
Q: Luke Shaw has been out for more than two months now. Originally it was suggested he was going to come back in September, then October and now November. Has he had setbacks?
A: "The process is not going as we expected. That is the truth. But a setback, if you want to call it like this, yes, but we also want to do it carefully because we don’t.. when he is now dropping again and we have made the wrong process so we want to be very careful.
"We know his past and we have to do things right because we want him to be available because he will have a big impact on our performances and so also our levels. So we cannot have it that he plays for some games and drops out again so we do it very carefully."
Q: You won the Carabao Cup a couple of years ago and you take great pride in winning trophies in both seasons. If you win a trophy in your third season, does it make this season a success again?
A: "Definitely. It is about trophies. I don’t want to go on about this debate again but I think it is the truth. There are not so many trophies you can win and if you win a trophy it tops them all.
"That is the most important thing because that is what the fans expect and what we expect, to win the trophy and you have.. We have had five opportunities and one we missed but that was the Community Shield but there are still four to go."
Q: After the European game, you said Manuel Ugarte was still developing but there are still parts of the game model you are looking to build into his game. What are you looking for from your midfielder?
A: "My midfielders... I have different types and we have, of course, the holding midfielders, the box-to-box, the 10s.
"Most of the time we have four midfielders there and we rotate them and specifically for Manuel Ugarte, most of the time he will be in a holding position and yes, what we expect from him is holding but also linking, building the attack and making the links into attack and then, very importantly, he is in the defensive position."
Q: Is this linking the build you want to build with him?
A: "I think every player can do better but I was very happy with his performance in Fenerbahce. It was definitely a step forward."
Q: How do you think the players will respond to this setback today. They have obviously performed well but not taken their chances and the injustice of the penalty call but if you look at the table, 14th in the Premier League. Do they look at that and think ‘this is not good enough, we need to be better.’
A: "First of all, we have to do better. I will tell them the ranking is not reflecting our performance or levels but at the end of the season, we have to get this right but of course, it is not easy when you have so many setbacks at the start of the season and to overcome this but we have to fight back.
"It will always help when you have a good start. You get motivation, you get belief. The confidence will grow and we are now in the process of the other side when we are disappointed but we have to deal with setbacks and now we have to find the fuel from setbacks and disappointments."
