27 year old Manchester United and Scottish international midfielder, Scott McTominay, recently gave a very interesting interview to the media where he opened up about the true feelings that have existed in the Old Trafford dressing room in very recent years.
With manager Erik ten Hag continuing to struggle with the squad when it comes to their form and consistency levels, his own position at the club has been brought into doubt in recent weeks, but the 47 capped player insists that his team mates are full behind the Dutchman, and that has not always been the case under former managers.
“It is the players’ responsibility, first and foremost. We have had many amazing players and right now we are at the stage where we have big characters in the dressing room. It is not just a case of like, some of the other managers where it has been a little bit toxic at times – the boys are firmly behind the manager. We’ve got amazing coaching staff. We just want to do well for the football club and it’s as simple as that.”
The speculation will undoubtedly continue despite McTominay’s words, particularly as United sit in sixth place in the Premier League table and are a full ten points behind league leaders Liverpool, and they go into what is an absolutely must win game on home soil against Bayern Munich on Tuesday evening if they are to have any chance of keeping their Champions League hopes alive.
Bayern will prove to be a solid test of their own, but United’s preparation for that game have not been perfect as they go into it following a 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth in their last game – it represents their eleventh defeat in their 23 games across all competitions in the 2023/24 campaign.
Given those statistics, McTominay’s comments follow Ten Hag own previously where he dismissed suggestions that there was a split dressing room at the club, as he himself insisted the first team squad were ‘together’ but given he is now in his second year at the club, fans will naturally wonder if that is true given some of the more Jekyll and Hyde performances that have again been on display.
There is also no denying that his predecessors, David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solkjaer, all had off pitch issues to contend with, and Ten Hag has had a string of high profile off pitch problems of his own, and even though some players have now moved on, from the outside at least, it does not look like the atmosphere has materially changed in the way the manager and McTominay suggest.
It is a big week again for the club, and as we head towards the January transfer window, plenty will wonder if the United board will again decide to go in a different direction.