Thomas Frank ready to take on ‘brilliant’ Erik ten Hag

By Sonia Twigg, PA

Thomas Frank has hailed Manchester United’s new manager Erik ten Hag as “brilliant” and admitted he is looking forward to a reunion with Christian Eriksen when the Red Devils travel to Brentford on Saturday.

United suffered a surprise defeat to Brighton on the opening weekend of the season, after putting in a below-par performance at Old Trafford.

The Bees go into the match off the back of a comeback 2-2 draw at Leicester where they fought back from two goals behind to secure the point.

However, Frank does not believe there is a good time to play United.

“I don’t think there is an ideal time,” the Bees manager said.

“In general I don’t believe in if it’s a perfect situation to play them in or a bad situation to play them in.

“But one thing is for sure, they’ve got a new manager, a brilliant manager, I think he’s done a fantastic job in his earlier jobs, so they’re very interested in doing everything they can to make it a success with the players.

“They lost the first game, so if you lost a game the most common response (is) to really want to improve and do well. So it’s going to be extremely difficult tomorrow.

“I think there is no doubt that Manchester United are favourites, they can’t afford not to win against us tomorrow.

“Of course we believe and we will do everything we can to beat them and I believe we have a good chance.”

Eriksen spent half of last season at Brentford after being unable to play in Italy due to the implantable defibrillator fitted after his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.

The Denmark international helped guide Brentford to Premier League safety before moving on to Old Trafford this summer, and Frank is looking forward to a reunion.

“I am looking forward to seeing him again,” Frank said.

“I look forward to giving him a hug and asking him how his family is, then I look forward to competing against him on the pitch and afterwards hopefully we will have three points and he will have zero, but we will see.

“I think no doubt with his qualities, you could also see it in the last game – I know he was used in two different positions during the game.

“Obviously his quality on the ball is key and we know we can’t give him too much time because he can see the ball between lines, he can see the ball behind and has the quality to put it on a string for any player.”