Man Utd: Ten Hag’s ‘lost 50%’ of dressing room as ‘robotic’ manager went ‘too far’ with £73m flop

According to reports, Erik ten Hag has “lost 50%” of the Manchester United dressing room with “players confused with what is happening”.

Ten Hag – who is the third favourite in the Premier League race – is under increasing pressure at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils have been dumped out of the Carabao Cup prematurely and they are also at risk of being knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage.

Man Utd’s recent form in the Premier League has been pretty good but they were beaten in disappointing fashion against Newcastle United on Saturday night.

Ten Hag’s side were only beaten 1-0 but they were barely able to lay a glove on Newcastle, who won convincingly amid their ongoing injury crisis.

United are now seventh in the Premier League and they have games against Chelsea, Bournemouth, Bayern Munich and Liverpool in the coming weeks.

A report from ESPN on Monday afternoon claimed Man Utd players are becoming ‘disillusioned’ by Ten Hag and Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol has now provided a detailed update on the manager’s future.

Solhekol has revealed that a source close to United has informed him that United has “lost about 50 per cent of the dressing room”.

“We should make it clear that it’s very easy to kick a club when they’re down. It’s easy to kick Erik ten Hag when he’s down. It’s really easy to say he’s lost the dressing room and that the players are not playing for him,” Solhekol said on Sky Sports.

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“My information is that some of the players are confused with what is happening. He has lost elements of the dressing room. One source tells me that he’s lost about 50 per cent of the dressing room.

“Quite a few players are unhappy with the style of play, they also feel that they’re training too hard and that they’re running too much during training. I was told that the players don’t know what they’re running for.

“Also, some senior players have spoken to Erik ten Hag about where they feel the club is going wrong. They’ve spoken to him about their other experiences of playing for big clubs, and they feel that the manager should be a little bit more touchy-feely.

“They feel his man-management could be a little bit better, but Erik ten Hag is the boss and he’s the one who calls the shots. He is not for turning. He is going to do things his way.

“I’ve also been told that a few of the players believe that he is too set in his ways and he’s too robotic.”

Solhekol is also of the understanding that Ten Hag’s handling of the Jadon Sancho situation has not helped his cause. The reporter has revealed a “few of the players” feel that the Dutchman went “too far”.

“A few of the players are also unhappy at how Jadon Sancho has been treated,” Solhekol added.

“He’s got people in the dressing room who are close to him and he’s been totally frozen out because he’s refused to apologise to Erik ten Hag.

“He’s training with the kids and he’s eating on his own. Quite a few of the players feel like that has gone too far. There’s always unhappy people in a dressing room, but when you’re losing games, there are even more of them.”

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