Manchester United: Erik ten Hag says his dressing room is ‘together’

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has dismissed suggestions he has a split dressing room, saying he and his squad are “together”.

The club are seventh in the Premier League and bottom of their Champions League group.

But the Dutchman said some of his side’s recent victories would have been impossible if the camp was not united.

“In every team, there are always players who are not playing or playing less who are less happy,” he said.

“That is not different to normal.”

United, who have won five of their past seven Premier League matches, host Chelsea on Wednesday.

The club took the unusual step of excluding representatives from four media organisations from their scheduled news conference on Wednesday after reacting furiously to reports up to half of the squad were either unhappy with Ten Hag, or his training and tactics.

Ten Hag pointed to the performances in victories over Burnley, Brentford – where his side came back to win 2-1 by scoring twice in stoppage time – and Fulham as evidence of squad unity.

He said: “You see the [late] comeback against Brentford, the Burnley game, the Fulham game; every time the team is there, showed great character, great determination and resilience. We are together. You can’t play such great football as we did lately if there is no unity. No, there are no issues.”

Ten Hag’s training methods have been cited as an issue previously.

However, the former Ajax boss – who was brought in to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer partly because the club felt he would inject greater discipline – says he is prepared to listen to unhappy players.

But that, he argued, has not happened en masse.

“I always listen to my players and give them opportunities to tell if the players have a different opinion,” he said.

“But they haven’t told me – or maybe one or two.”

Ten Hag also suggested the performances in the 3-0 Premier League win at Everton – when Alejandro Garnacho scored a goal of the season contender – and the 3-3 Champions League draw away to Galatasaray show the players support his methods.

He said: “In general, the majority, they want to play like this – proactive, dynamic, brave. You can see the players are behind it because of the performances against Everton and Galatasaray. You see the we are really improving.

“You see that goal? Do you think we can make the goal we did against Everton if the players don’t embrace it? What do you think?”