Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag spoke about the Manchester United dressing room and what kind of state he found it in.
United endured a difficult campaign in 2021/22 as they not only went through two managers but they finished in a disappointing sixth place in the league and out of all the cup competitions in March, which is unheard of a United team.
Erik ten Hag was appointed as the club’s new manager in April but he was under contract at Ajax so he could not take over straight away, but he was reportedly having meetings with the players before starting work at Old Trafford in the summer.
The confidence of the team and individual players was on the floor, and they need picking up as United suffered some heavy and brutal defeats, particularly to the top teams of last season, Manchester City and Liverpool.
“There was no spirit in it, I didn’t see any team dynamics in the team. The mental resilience was very low. The fighting spirit, for each other, putting the team as a priority, that was not really in this selection” ten Hag told Voetbal International [via centre devils].
🚨🎙️| Erik ten Hag on #mufc when he joined: “There was no spirit in it, I didn't see any team dynamics in the team. The mental resilience was very low. The fighting spirit, for each other, putting the team as a priority, that was not really in this selection.” [@VI_nl]
— centredevils. (@centredevils) December 21, 2022
Gary Neville spoke on Sky and he said that the “dressing room looks broken” [Sky Sports] because it looked as though on the pitch the players were not fighting for each other and that whenever United conceded a goal the players did not know how to respond to moments of adversity.
However, in the opening three months of the 2022/23 season, the turnaround could not be more stark as there is more togetherness on the pitch, and we can see that the players are fighting for each other, which was evident in the dramatic 2-1 win over Fulham in United’s last Premier League fixture before the World Cup break.
Maintaining that togetherness and fighting spirit is going to be important as United will need that if they are to go far in all four competitions, including qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, which is the aim for this season.
