After the Red Devils’ 3-0 League Cup loss to Newcastle United, the manager is feeling more and more pressure.
Not everything at Manchester United is good. The Red Devils are off to their worst start to a season since 1962–1963, having lost eight of their first fifteen games.
Down in eighth in the Premier League table, eight points behind Liverpool and the top four, defeats to Bayern Munich and Galatasaray also leave them with it all to do at the halfway point of the Champions League group-stages if they are to stand any chance of progression.
Their latest low came on Wednesday night as they lost 3-0 to Newcastle United at Old Trafford in the League Cup fourth round. They had defeated the same opposition at Wembley back in February to win the tournament last year for their first, and only, piece of silverware since 2017.
That loss to the Magpies was their second-successive 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford, having been dismantled by local-rivals Man City in the Manchester derby just days earlier. Consequently, manager Erik ten Hag is now one of the favourites to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job, with the Times reporting that the Dutchman is ‘on thin ice’, and that the club are considering alternatives. He has been in the job for only 18 months.
Throw in all the off-field turmoil, from Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho being banished following squabbles with their manager, well-documented much more serious scandals and the accompanying morality quandaries, and the ongoing debacle surround the Glazers’ ownership of the club and a possible takeover, and it’s clear that all is not well at Old Trafford at all
Such unwanted headlines off the pitch would be a distraction for any club. But how much they are truly impacting the United dressing room and their performances, only Ten Hag and his players could possibly say as, booed both at half-time and after the final whistle against Newcastle, their latest crisis continues.
Regardless, the Dutchman has vowed to fight on, insisting that he is the the right man to stop the downward spiral at Old Trafford that has been ongoing ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.
“I understand when the results are not there it is logical they are questioning that (Ten Hag’s position),” he said after losing to Newcastle. “But I am confident I can do it
