Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag has taken aim at the Premier League s scheduling after his side came through a lunctime kick-off in Southampton with a win.
said that the early kick off was unfair on the travelling fans who had come all the way to support their team.
He also feels that the Premier League needs to do more to ensure that the schedules are fair to all teams.
Ten Hag gave his team credit for their maturity in rising to the occasion in a difficult fixture made tougher by the timing.
“First of all, for the fans it is very unfair to deal with this,” he said.
“With 8pm away games for them on a Saturday night, the 12:30pm – it’s not right.
“But they are always there, so I’m so proud of our fans that they are always there and, whatever happens on the pitch, they’re always supportive of the team and there is a really good connection.
“But I think the Premier League also should pay some attention to this, the fixture list.
“It’s a big disadvantage (for the team), but we have to deal with it as they did today.
“You see the team are mature, the players are mature. It doesn’t matter. We always have to win, we can’t bring any excuse for not winning a game.”
Ten Hag credited Andre Onana s penalty stop for sparking his team into life before they went on to win 3-0.
Onana denied Cameron Archer from the spot and moments later Matthijs de Ligt gave the Red Devils a lead with his first goal for the club.
Marcus Rashford doubled the advantage with his first goal for Man Utd since March.
“I think that was the turning point in the game,” the United boss said of Onana’s penalty stop.
“We got the momentum and there you see how small the margins are. Against Brighton we score a goal and it’s crazy, disallowed.
“Today you concede a penalty and a couple of minutes later we score a goal and from that moment on it was our game.”
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Souhampton boss Russell Martin was happy with his side s effort but bemused to concede twice from setpieces.
“I loved the performance, the aggression, the intensity in it. Some of the football we played was great.
“We didn’t make the most of it and then we missed a penalty and it completely changed the energy of the game, the whole stadium, which is understandable.
“We didn’t respond well enough to that and in that moment United took some control and capitalised on that.
