Ten Hag pleased by return of passion & desirein slender victory over Brentford

Erik ten Hag called on Manchester United to become faultless as they took back control of their Champions League aspirations.

Marcus Rashford's winner was enough to beat Brentford, United's first Premier League victory since February 19 and a reaction to the dismal defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday.

But Thomas Frank was left rueing substitute Kevin Schade's huge missed chance - fashioned after the on-loan striker nipped in front of Raphael Varane - and Ten Hag is wary of lapsed defensive concentration. The Dutchman added that United still have a margin for improvement.

'There was passion and desire that was missing on Sunday and we got over the line,' Ten Hag said. 'When you lose focus, mistakes can happen. We want to play as a machine and not make mistakes. We made one mistake and thankfully they didn't benefit from it.

'We are not there, where I want it. Sunday was not acceptable. This is not United, not our standards. There is a certain mentality and when one or two [players] can't bring this, you have a problem.

'We had to bounce back and we did. I liked a lot the way we played in the first half, against a very tough opponent - especially against the top teams.'

Frank claimed in the build-up that he was expecting the trip to Old Trafford to represent Brentford's trickiest assignment of the season.

When asked if that proved to be the case, the manager replied: 'The simple answer is no. It is a good picture of how far we've come. We're disappointed, which is crazy - we're playing Manchester United.

'We need to remind ourselves sometimes who we are and what we have done. There were two things: we didn't take the biggest chance of the game and us not hitting our highest level.'

Meanwhile, Ten Hag could not offer a diagnosis on Luke Shaw's injury after the left back limped off before half time.