With Pellistri’s chances of playing against Reading this weekend, the boss admitted that he has already started thinking about the FA Cup tie.
“After today I have something in my head,” he said. “But I have to compose this game and look at my plans and look at Reading and then we have a good plan to beat Reading.”
Ten Hag also got a sense of what Weghorst’s first goal would mean with his fellow Dutchman, when the center forward’s first shot from Antoni was saved by Wayne Hennessey.
“Yeah but of course for strikers it’s always important” [to score]” he said. “I think it’s a great job at Crystal Palace and at Arsenal, pressing and shielding. When the movement, because I think the goal from Bruno in the Crystal Palace, was part of it, because it makes a movement to the front. Rashford’s goal at Arsenal was part of what Rashford did by pulling into midfield.
“But in the end, the strikers are there to score goals, and when they don’t score, they are not happy. So it is important for him, both for his confidence and for scoring goals, and I think this is the way. This is one of the ways he sets goals: to be in the box and to be present.