Ten Hag insists the 'bigger picture' still looks good despite defeat to Fulham

A defiant Erik ten Hag insisted the future is still bright for Manchester United despite a damaging defeat to Fulham at Old Trafford.

It has plunged United’s hopes of Champions League qualification into doubt, which could have a bearing on Ten Hag keeping his job in the summer.

But the United boss said: ‘I said from the start of January, we are in finals. We won many and now we lost one.

‘After one defeat you have to see the bigger picture, and the bigger picture looks very good.

‘We have to catch up in certain positions and get the injuries back, then we will be more balanced and also strengthen the squad in the transfer windows.

‘You see there are many good players coming up and real high-potential players. They will be getting better so definitely we are going in the right direction. When we have the players available, we have a very good team.’

Ten Hag thought United deserved to beat Fulham, adding: ‘We should have won this game as the team showed great character.

‘We had two slow starts in both halves, definitely. We fought back in the game and then we went for the win, but by the end we let them slip away.’

However, Fulham boss Marco Silva was adamant that his team deserved their first win league win at Old Trafford since 2003 after suffering some painful defeats to United in recent meetings.

‘Definitely,’ said Silva. ‘I’m clear in my opinion that the better team on the pitch won the game.

‘After 1-1 and 89 minutes of the game with the crowd, it becomes what I call a crazy Premier League game. Anything can happen. It was a moment for us to concede the second as Old Trafford was on fire, but we showed a strong mentality.’