Erik ten Hag has already issued 'annoying' Newcastle United verdict ahead of Man Utd Carabao Cup clash

Newcastle United are now preparing for a Carabao Cup clash with Manchester United, but what has Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag said of the Magpies in the past? Newcastle went up against Ten hag's men in last season's Carabao Cup final, coming off second best.

A lot has changed since then, with Newcastle strengthening on the back of a Champions League-qualifying campaign, while the Red Devils have struggled in the early stages of this season, most recently losing at home to Manchester City 3-0. In Some ways, the change of circumstances for both clubs over recent months have made Wednesday night's Carabao Cup round of 16 clash that much more interesting.

And there's also a little needle between these two clubs after comments Ten Hag made about Newcastle before last season's cup final at Wembley.

On one hand, Ten Hag was complimentary of Eddie Howe's men, saying: "I think it’s a great team with a clear philosophy about how they want to play the game. The key word is intensity. They do really well. They’re an annoying team to play against, so we have to find a way to win. They try to annoy you. We have to make sure that we play our game and we focus on our game."

That wasn't the only thing Ten Hag said, though, with the Dutchman responding to claims of Newcastle wasting time last season by adding: "The referees want to play effective time. [Newcastle] have the lowest in the league and they are quite successful with it. So, it’s up to us that we get speed in the game but also we are then dependent on the refereeing as well.”

Since then, the Premier League have clamped down on time-wasting, showing a clear willingness to add on large quantiies of time at the end of games to compensate for any time lost through time-wasting, VAR reviews or anything else that pauses games while the referee's stopwatch continues to tick.