The Dutchman said that he and his team were 'angry' at their concession of the goal against the Bees late into injury time in the first half.
Ethan Pinnock was poorly marked by Diogo Dalot to give Thomas Frank the lead but at that point, United were once again down to 10 men. Not because of a red card this time (thank goodness) but because Matthijs De Ligt had blood pouring out his head after an earlier collision with Kevin Schade's knee!
The referee actually gave a free-kick to Brentford, but anyway.
De Ligt had to be taken off because of that initial challenge as there was quite a lot of blood.
United sort of patched him up as not long after that, the blood began to run down his head once again forcing the referee to tell him to come off.
The wound opened for a third time just before that Brentford goal and once more referee Samuel Barrott asked the defender to remove himself from the pitch.
Brentford then go on to score and take at that point, a somewhat unlikely lead as it was the home side who was on top at that moment.
Had De Ligt been on the field, perhaps things could've been different. Or, the result could've been the same but not having him on there certainly made it worse for ten Hag and United.
This caused quite an uproar on the touchline as both De Ligt and Ruud van Nistelrooy were raging at the decision to ask the centre-back to come off for treatment when that corner was clearly going to be the last action of the first half.
As Erik ten Hag said: "Everyone was angry. We took that as fuel. We showed with a quick start in the second half that we wanted to put things right."
That is exactly what happened as United came out in that second period absolutely on fire. They could not have asked for a better start to the second 45 as Garnacho scored in the 47th minute to equalize. It was only one team winning it from there.
The home team did eventually get a second through Rasmus Hojlund - his first in the league this season - and see out the game 2-1 giving Erik ten Hag a win he desperately needed and one that will ease the pressure, at least for now.
This whole De Ligt debacle is something that I believe was our fault more than anyone else's. Whether De Ligt would've actually made a difference in preventing that Brentford goal, no one can truly say but we really ought to have cleaned him up properly the first time.
To have him come back out onto the pitch and have his head bleeding as it was on TWO SEPARATE OCCASIONS was just another example of our medical department being poor once again. It's an area of our club that needs more improvement than perhaps the team itself as we've had so many injuries in the past two years that it has to be more than simple bad luck.
Their patch-up job on De Ligt made it clearer for all to see just how not up to standard that department truly is.
Even without De Ligt on the field, as feel that we still should've defended that corner a lot better as Dalot just lets Pinnock run freely to get a pretty straightforward header from close range that gave Onana no chance.
We all know that defending set plays, crosses and corners is a huge weakness of ours and it whouldn't have come as a surprise that Brentford scored from a corner even more so when they're relatively good at them. Thomas Frank would've definitely identified that as an area for his team to exploit and showcased once more that United and Andreas Georgson - the set-piece coach - still have a lot of work to do to improve an area of our game that is still not at the quality required.
In saying all this, United feeling aggrieved reminded me of the game at Spurs a few years ago. Scott McTominay shielded the ball away from Son Heung-Min and accidentally caught him in the face. United would go on to score from that move but the goal was ruled out as that flailing hand to the face was deemed a foul.
To rub salt into the wounds, Son went and scored for Spurs at the other end not long after that disallowed United strike.
United and then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were outraged at all that had transpired in that play and came out firing in the second period and absolutely tore Spurs apart as they would go on to win 3-1.
This is similar to what happened against Brentford yesterday.
But while it was all well and good, why does it take something like that to get the team pumped and raring to go? Shouldn't we start off and try to play like we did in that second half all game?
As has become a pretty annoying habit of ours that has put us in a lot of trouble in the (recent) past, we tend to start off games very slowly, almost as if we're still on the bus. This allows the opposition's flying starts resulting in MUFC needing to chase the game before it's even truly begun.
That is not something we do too well as we more often than not, drop our heads and go on to lose.
In this game, we did start slowly again as the away side had more possession, looked very comfortable and confident on the ball, we didn't really press them and they did get at us a good amount even if Brentford didn't create too many clear cut chances.
Thankfully though, this wasn't one of those times where we were punished for a slow start but what if De Ligt and the rest of our team was still on the field and Brentford managed to score anyway? Would that 'anger' still have been there during the break causing the team to respond the way they did?
I know we were playing relatively well and were on top until that point but we shouldn't be needing something to go against us (as ten Hag and co felt) for the players to be up for it.
That should be the case anyway.
Given our situation this season, the team needed to be up for it more than ever considering our place in the league before the match (14th), the inconsistent performances, the poor results and the fact that the manager's job is on the line if things go south.
Those are more than enough reasons to 'anger' the team.
However, whether this second half display in particular was solely down to that anger or not, what we need to do is build upon it otherwise this will just be a one-off, something else that we've seen far too many times with United over the years.
Erik ten Hag keeps talking about the plan (which I don't think many truly know what it is) and how we need to see some consistency and this performance certainly gives them all a chance to show some of that consistency as it was a morale boosting and deserved win.
Fenerbahce up next will be a challenge in itself and we will definitely need to be 'angry' for that one if we want to get a positive result.
Background Image: Matthijs De Ligt and Erik ten Hag furious with the referee after the defender was told to come off for treatment resulting in Brentford scoring after United had to defend a corner with 10 men | Creator: Michael Regan Michael Regan | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2024 Getty Images via Goal