Shearer makes huge Ten Hag sack claim after Man Utd scrape past Coventry

Erik ten Hag reacts during the FA Cup semi-final

Alan Shearer reckons Erik ten Hag will be sacked at Man Utd even if they won the FA Cup after beating Coventry City in a penalty shoot-out on Sunday.

The Premier League outfit were given an almighty scare at Wembley on Sunday as the second-tier side fought back from 3-0 down and then had a late extra-time winner disallowed for a marginal offside.

Will Erik ten Hag be safe if he wins the FA Cup?

A thrilling contest ended 3-3 after 120 minutes and it was Man Utd who ultimately prevailed, 4-2 on spot-kicks, to set up a repeat of last year’s final against rivals Man City.

It was another highly unconvincing performance by Man Utd – which may have increased the pressure on under-fire manager Ten Hag – with the Red Devils winning just one of their last seven Premier League fixtures to slip down to seventh in the table.

They also crashed out of the Champions League before Christmas and now former Newcastle striker Shearer thinks Ten Hag will be sacked even if he wins the FA Cup.

“I think the future of the Manchester United manager is already determined,” Shearer said on the Rest Is Football podcast. “Even if they win the FA Cup, I think he’s gone.

“I don’t think it matters if they win the cup, for his future. That might be sad, that might be wrong, but I just get the feeling that even winning the FA Cup is not going to be enough for him.

“When you look at the players and where they are in the league compared to where they want to be, I think he’s already gone.

“I don’t know it for a fact, it’s just a guess, a hunch, but I just get the feeling that the decision is already made.

“We know how football works, they’ve got new owners, new director of football, it just tells you that a new manager is incoming.”

Erik ten Hag insists Coventry display is ‘not an embarrassment’

Ten Hag refused to call his side’s performance against Championship side Coventry an “embarrassment” despite their poor performance.

The Man Utd boss said: “I can’t say that word (embarrassment) because, at the end of the day, it’s about the achievement.

“I see the mistakes we make – we can’t look away from it – but it’s not an embarrassment. It’s a huge achievement.

“Even the big team from United, a decade ago, only achieved the final three times. We now have two times in two years. So that’s a good performance.

“I see we can play in very high levels but in the same match we can also go very low. That’s not explainable. It has to do with managing the game.

“I have to teach my players, clearly. We have to do better in such occasions.

“On several occasions we’ve let the result slip away but today we got away with it.”