United boss Ten Hag not getting carried away despite thrashing Reds

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag refused to get carried away despite his rampant side thrashing Liverpool 4-0 in his first game in charge.

First-half strikes from Jadon Sancho, Fred, Anthony Martial got the Dutch boss off to a dream start in their pre-season friendly in Bangkok before Facundo Pellistri added a fourth late on to complete a comprehensive victory.

United took advantage of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp naming a weakened side for the clash, with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Darwin Nunez not introduced until the 61st minute.

And while there were plenty of positives for United as they put their rivals to the sword, Ten Hag knows it is still early days.

The 52-year-old told MUTV: "I know we have good players, now we have to construct a team. I'm happy with the first game. 

"It will take lots of time to get this team playing my way. I have seen a lot of mistakes today. Let's be honest, Liverpool played three teams, they were not at their strongest. 

"We must not overestimate this result, but still I have seen some really good things. We have a lot of creativity and speed up front. Like I said, we have potential.

"I think that was a team with a great spirit and we know we are just started. The press, we made some mistakes, but we also created some chances with pressing."

The victory at the Rajamangala Stadium also saw £13million summer signing Tyrell Malacia make his debut, with the left-back replacing Luke Shaw for the second half.

After putting in a steady 45 minutes, he said: "I'm very happy, it feels amazing to be here and wearing this shirt. It was difficult because the weather is very hot, but we made it.

"I hope to bring some good defending, bring assists and some energy into the team.

"It's a dream for me to play in the Premier League, and now I'm here."

Reds boss Klopp was disappointed to be on the recieving end of the heavy loss but stressed that player fitness is the priority at this stage of pre-season.

The German boss told the club's official website: "Obviously the game came a little bit too early for us, for some of our boys. I think we agree that we saw a lot of good things in this game, but in the decisive moments we were not clear enough with finishing our situations off. 

"We gave massive chances away, pretty much. Pretty much no-brainers, but United did well in these moments, they finished the situations off. We admit that, but that's it pretty much.

"I know football is a results game and we do it all for that, but we have to prepare for a full season.

"Of course I would have loved to have shown the people here a few goals. The chances were there, we didn't use them, and that's it.

"The most important thing now after the game, even when I hate losing, everybody has 30 minutes in their legs now. So now we can work with that and will work with that."

United will now head to Australia for the next stop of their pre-season tour as they face friendlies with Melbourne Victory, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa over the next 11 days.

Liverpool are also up against Palace in Singapore before travelling to face RB Leipzig and then FC Salzburg.