Dressing room noises aren’t new for Manchester United representatives in recent times. It has been noted that every time Manchester United goes on a bad run, certain forms of dressing room leaks tend to come out. This season with Manchester United having a rollercoaster of a form, Erik ten Hag faced such rumors once again.
After Manchester United displayed an embarrassing performance at St. James’ Park, it was rumored that Erik ten Hag had lost 50% of the dressing room. With this news popping out it was told that players didn’t like the style of play the Dutch manager held.
🔴 Erik ten Hag: “Crisis? Not for us. We keep calm. We know where we have to build, the direction is right”.
“Dressing room stories? I don’t care about the noise. They are used to it. It was the same at Ajax but in a smaller country so less people”. pic.twitter.com/UAMBAFEmC6
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 7, 2023
In reply to such doubts, on December 6th, 2023, Manchester United hosted their fierce rivals Chelsea. In this match, Manchester United showcased such leaks stating that Erik ten Hag had lost the dressing room are false. The players followed the plan displayed by the Dutch manager and went on to win the game by 2 goals to 1 with Scott Mctominay bagging a brace.
During the post-match interview, Erik ten Hag was once again asked about the dressing room crisis. Related to these questions he replied, “Crisis? Not for us. We keep calm. We know where we have to build, the direction is right”.
When also asked about different stories being put up by the media that players do not want to play for him he claimed to say, “Dressing room stories? I don’t care about the noise. They are used to it. It was the same at Ajax but in a smaller country so less people”.
With this emphatic victory, ten Hag will hope that his team can continue upon this performance and retrieve their season. With this victory over Chelsea, Manchester United moved to the 6th place in the Premier League, just 3 points behind the defending champions, Manchester City, and 9 points behind league leaders, Arsenal.
Improvement in Manchester United performance post harsh critiques
After holding back-to-back 3-0 defeats to their arch-rivals Manchester City and Newcastle United, Erik ten Hag’s side came under loads of scrutiny. Holding such defeats led to many people start questioning ten Hag’s position as the Manchester United manager.
Despite some humiliating defeats, Manchester United managed to improve their form and deliver good performances with the ball.
Even though since those defeats the Red Devils hadn’t had good results in the UEFA Champions League they did show good performances in their 4-3 defeat to Kopenhagen and 3-3 draw to Galatasaray. Both the unfortunate results were not related to poor performances but coincided with individual mistakes.
In contrast to international matches, Manchester United have had good performances as well as good results in their domestic games, which included 4 wins across the 5 matches played keeping 3 clean sheets. After the harsh critiques, Manchester United faced a defeat to Newcastle United which reignited such critiques.
But instead of letting them through their skin Manchester United showcased their best performance so far in the season against their bitter rivals Chelsea. With a tough list of fixtures not so far away, Erik ten Hag will be looking to take this form into the future and turn their fortunes across the season up ahead.