TNT Sports pundits Ally McCoist and Jermaine Jenas have launched a scathing attack on Manchester United after their dismal loss to Newcastle United yesterday.
Speaking about manager Erik Ten Hag, McCoist said:
“He’s an intelligent man. He knows he’s got a problem if he gets that level of performance from Manchester United again.
“That was miles off it. Absolutely miles off it.
“It’s a horrible thing to level at a professional football player, when you’re questioning commitment, and a desire to run about. But that’s the question you’ve got to ask of some of those Manchester United players.”
The interviewer asked the pair whether they think the players are not playing for Ten Hag.
“Tonight there were signs,” said Jenas.
“There was a couple of players in there … that either wasn’t happy with the tactics that were put to them, or wasn’t happy with their positions on the pitch.
“The body language of a team says a lot at times and there was a few of them sending a message to the manager.
“I thought Marcus Rashford on that right hand side in particular, the way he just walked around, throwing his arms around was one … that said ‘look, I don’t want to be playing on this right hand side.’
“No tracking back … he seems to be a disciplinarian off the pitch, Ten Hag, but I didn’t see that same level of respect on the pitch today.”
Jenas went on to say that the next round of fixtures could see a lot more disappointment for United and he expects them to be knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
Often, pundits like nothing more than to lay into United but these two said probably what most United fans were thinking after the Newcastle game.
On Wednesday at Galatasaray we saw a team fighting hard, only to be undone by some individual errors. But at St James’ Park, it was hard to see anything other than apathy and laziness from the men in red.