Erik ten Hag has urged Manchester United fans to show patience ahead of a critical run of games before the next international break.

United’s disappointing 1-1 draw to Twente in the Europa League exposed more problems, with Ten Hag questioning the mentality of his players and admitting the lack of goals were an issue.

It continued an underwhelming start to the season with United having already dropped eight points from their opening five Premier League matches and facing Spurs at home on Sunday and Aston Villa away the following weekend either side of a Europa League tie in Porto.

With Ten Hag now in his third season and having spent more than £600 million as United manager, frustration is growing among elements of the fanbase about the lack of consistency.

The under-pressure Dutchman admits he too is impatient for success but has called on supporters to give him time as he bids to mould the team.

Solskjaer opens door to sensational return

Ten Hag’s remarks came as former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted he would be open to a return to Old Trafford if there was a change in the dug out.

“I think you have to assess the situation,” Ten Hag said. “Still we are working, we are in progress. We made the choice to sign young players like [Rasmus] Hojlund last year and this year [Joshua] Zirkzee, Leny Yoro.

“They are players who we believe in them in this moment but also for the future and we have to build them.

“When I started we spoke about more we had to make a switch in the dressing room and I think we turned a corner and now we have to work with the squad and that takes time. Of course, I also am impatient – I want to go straight forward but to be fair we also had success in the last two seasons and we have to work hard to bring more success.

“You have also to be fair – I say it again, we won two trophies in the last two seasons and we want also to this season. We are ambitious, don’t get us wrong, we want to win another one this season and be as high as possible and keep going in every game for winning the game, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is.”

Solskjaer was sacked as United manager in November 2021 but admitted he would return if asked. “If the family [United] asks, I would say yes every day of the week,” Solskjaer said in a Q&A at the Oslo Business Forum. “It feels wrong to talk about jobs that other people have now, but I would say yes, of course.”

Eriksen makes damning claim

Christian Eriksen had suggested the Twente players wanted to win more than United. Asked how mentality could still be a problem at this stage of his reign, Ten Hag added: “I think every team has this in a season. That is, when you play 60 games I am sure there will be games where you are not happy with the performance and not happy where the opponent wants it more.

“I think that is always the psychological side of top football where any team has more hunger than the other. The team who can manage this the best are the most successful. We are ambitious so we always demand from ourselves that we are hungrier than our opponent.

“We should be – that is what we demand from each other. That is what we have to bring in on a consistent basis and that is what we are striving for. Successful teams have this.”

Ten Hag also reiterated that his team’s biggest concern was “not scoring enough goals”. “That is the problem,” he said. “It’s the key area - we have to score more goals as a team, we have players across the team who have the ability to score, that is clear, you see all the opportunities we are creating but we are not scoring enough.”