- Man United were void of soul and lustre during their 1-0 loss against Newcastle
- Pressure is mounting on Erik ten Hag, but his players’ efforts are not helping
- Manchester United have snakes in their dressing room, players who are not running. Bruce, Robson, Keane would never allow this – It’s All Kicking Off
Manchester United’s staggering modern deficiencies have been laid bare during a no-holds-barred episode of Mail Sport’s It’s All Kicking Off podcast.
United’s defeat at Newcastle on Saturday night was their sixth of a miserable Premier League season and leaves Erik Ten Hag’s team completely off the pace in seventh place. United are already out of the Carabao Cup and face elimination from the Champions League.
At St James’ Park, United’s manager struggled and once again failed to get a performance out of Marcus Rashford, while forward Anthony Martial was hauled off after an hour. They were not the only culprits. Tomorrow night they face Chelsea at Old Trafford, with the home support once again ready to revolt.
Speaking to IAKO co-host, Ian Ladyman, former Premier League winner Chris Sutton turned his fire on the United players and said: ‘This is far bigger than Ten Hag. He has players in that dressing room who are snakes as far as I am concerned.
‘Players who aren’t running. Bruno Fernandes isn’t running. Marcus Rashford isn’t running. Anthony Martial isn’t running. They are talented players so why?
‘Bruno Fernandes, I don’t know what position he plays. But Bruno is the captain. If Roy Keane was captain, if Steve Bruce was captain, if Bryan Robson was captain of that team would they be allowing what goes on out on the field?
‘It is the manager who carries the can but would they allow players not to run back and not pull their weight?
‘I can imagine the Newcastle players in the dressing room before that game. I imagine them having to be held in and then bursting and ready to explode. That’s how I imagine an Eddie Howe dressing room feels.
‘And then on the other side you have Manchester United and their dressing room which is just full of prima donnas.’
Ladyman, Mail Sport’s Football Editor, compared Ten Hag’s players to ‘teenagers who don’t want to get out of bed’ and looked for context back to the days of interim manager Ralf Rangnick, who coached the team for six months following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer two years ago.
‘Rangnick knew he would only be there for a few months so every Friday at his press conference he would be firing bullets because he knew he was off in a few months so didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire,’ said Ladyman.
‘He said the United squad needed open heart surgery. Everybody gasped. How could he say that?
‘Well, they have had that surgery now in terms of buying players. Players have gone out, others have come in. Ten Hag has spent money.
‘But what they still haven’t located at Manchester United is a soul and a heartbeat and I think that is the issue. However Ten Hag juggles it, changes players and their positions, and players come in to form like Harry Maguire has, and they have the odd good result, fundamentally he hasn’t managed to find the soul of that squad.
‘I actually wonder if it has one. And if it hasn’t he is absolutely screwed because you cannot exist and survive in the Premier League without courage and without energy and vitality and belief and a unity and an attitude that says: “I will show everybody else what I am and what we are”.
‘If you haven’t got that then whether you are Burnley near the bottom or Arsenal at the top then you are absolutely screwed. And the more I watch United the more I realise that problem is still there.
‘And what will kill Man United fans – time served Man United fans brought up on a diet of ‘Glory Glory Man United’ and ‘Attack! Attack! Attack!’ is that we are in the middle of this incredible Premier League season – that some say is the best ever – with teams like Tottenham and Brighton and Villa and Brentford and even teams punching up at the bottom like Wolves, and stuck in the middle of it like that bit of gnarly bit of popcorn you sometimes get in the middle of your bag at the cinema is Manchester United, the team that has nothing to offer.
‘If you put together a highlights package of the season about all the drama and excitement then what would their contribution be? Two late goals at home to Brentford.
‘United fans can cope with not being top of the league. They are not stupid. No one can be top every year. But they can’t cope with watching c**p and that’s the problem. They can’t cope with watching c**p and they can’t cope with being bored and that’s one of the issues. It’s been like this for ten years.’
United actually went into Saturday’s game as the form team in the Premier League, with five wins from six. But even last week Sutton, a golden boot winner with Blackburn in 1998, described watching Ten Hag’s team as like eating cold porridge.
‘It’s like Oliver Twist’s gruel isn’t?,’ he told IAKO.
‘They have got massive problems. Name a team in the top half of the table they have beaten this season. You can’t because there isn’t one. That’s the whole point.
‘We are at the stage now where even Manchester United fans are doubting them. They have been on a run where they have beaten some bang average teams.
‘See Aston Villa and Tottenham and you see an identity and a brand of football and players running. You see players busting a gut. You see Newcastle injury ravaged but the players are having a go. They are giving a lot.
‘Let’s try and be balanced. Last season Ten Hag over-achieved maybe but this season they are like a rotten window frame. You can paint over it to make it look better and get you through the winter but essentially its rotten.’
Ten Hag hinted at problems with Martial after Saturday’s game while Rashford has scored two league goals this season – the second one a penalty – after contributing 17 last time round.
Ladyman added: ‘The fact Anthony Martial has played more than 300 times for Manchester United sums up the lack of quality in that team.
‘I don’t actually know what Ten Hag does now. He buys a good character in Mason Mount, for example, but he has had injuries and can’t get in the team. So he tries to buy a bit of quality in terms of his football but also a quality individual.
‘But he can’t get in the team. We are groundhog day here.’
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
