Revealed: Erik ten Hag's final Man Utd rallying cry before INEOS sack call as Dutchman embarked on another 'trophies' rant & urged players to 'fight back'

Manchester United confirmed Ten Hag had been sacked in the wake of another Premier League defeat. Sunday's 2-1 loss to West Ham left the Red Devils down in 14th place in the table and proved to be the Dutchman's final match in charge with Ruud van Nistelrooy taking interim charge of the club. Van Nistelrooy will now oversee Wednesday's Carabao Cup clash with Leicester City while United try to find a permanent successor to Ten Hag.

Ten Hag delivered Carabao Cup and FA Cup titles during his time at Old Trafford and urged his team to focus on landing more silverware before his exit. The Dutchman felt that winning the Carabao Cup again would make this season a success, despite the team's current Premier League and Europa League struggles, and urged his players to respond to their defeat at West Ham against Leicester on Wednesday night.

What Ten Hag said: "It is about trophies. I don’t want to go into this debate again, but I think it is the truth that there are not so many trophies you can win, and if you win a trophy in top football, that is most important. That is what the fans expect and what we expect: to win a trophy. We have had five opportunities [this season]; one we missed, the first Community Shield. But there are still four to go.

"First of all, we have to do better at our [league] ranking, but I will tell them [the players] that our ranking is not really reflecting our performances and our levels. At the end of the season, we have to get this right. But, of course it is not easy when you have so many setbacks in the start of the season. You have to overcome this. We have to fight back. The confidence will grow. And we are now on the other side where we are disappointed and we have to deal with setbacks. Now we have to find the fuel from setbacks and disappointments.”

Manchester United lost 10 games by a margin of three or more goals in all competitions under Erik ten Hag, twice as many as they suffered under any other Red Devils boss since Sir Alex Ferguson's reign.

Sporting boss Ruben Amorim is the leading candidate to replace Ten Hag, with the Red Devils even hoping to appoint the 39-year-old in time for Sunday's Premier League fixture against Chelsea at Old Trafford.