Erik ten Hag says Manchester United will be taking their Carabao Cup tie against Barnsley “very seriously”, with the Dutch manager setting his sights on “winning trophies” this season.

In his pre-match news conference, Ten Hag disagreed with former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s comments that trophies are an ‘ego thing’ and the league is ‘most important’.

He added: “I think all the leagues are important. In top football, at the end of the day, it is about winning trophies and hitting targets.

“You set some targets in the season but also longer term ones which you want to grow into, therefore you have a strategy and follow the strategy. You develop and progress the team.

“When you win one of the five leagues then you hit some targets and you have done your job well.”

Ten Hag added that he believes playing more games this season, and progressing through cup competitions, will be “very important” for his squad.

“We will see tomorrow what the line-up will be. We take it very seriously,” he added.

“We have to get into the season and to do that you have to work on routines and patterns – it is very important. Many players didn’t play together in pre-season, so we have to build those partnerships and we have to build those patterns and routines.

“That is the only way it is possible – is in games – because training time is also very limited when we have to cover so many games, every third day. Training is almost a recovery.”