This weekend’s tricky match away at Fulham is crucial for Manchester United. Erik Ten Hag says his team are on the way up.
Things will improve, he says. Many United supporters would not agree with that assessment, especially after another disastrous performance against Newcastle in the midweek Carabao Cup encounter.
Word from inside the dressing room is that the players are fed up with Ten Hag’s ruthless attitude, tough training and bad decisions.
The Carabao Cup display highlighted that many players are not performing for the manager and want him gone.
The club has lost five of their first ten games, are eighth in the table but more crucially, they are 11 points behind leaders Tottenham.
After the loss to rivals Manchester City, a four-man delegation drove all the way to Glasgow in Scotland to seek advice and wisdom from Sir Alex Ferguson.
That is how bad the situation is at Old Trafford. However, a section of the noisy faithful at the Stretford End of Old Trafford still has belief that Ten Hag can turn it around.
Word is that Ten Hag has ten games left to convince the United board that he can do the job which many are saying is too big for him.
Former Brighton and Chelsea manager Graham Potter is being tipped as Ten Hag’s replacement.
The difference in class between United and City last weekend was as wide as the Grand Canyon and Ten Hag has been given time and money but has failed to come up with a winning strategic plan this season.
Last year was successful but this year the team has gone miles backwards.
As a mark of respect for United legend Sir Bobby Charlton, there were none of the usual anti-Glazer protests last weekend but it is also because many of those same supporters have recognised that Ten Hag is now the problem.
It was his decision that world-class defender Raphael Verane was left on the bench last weekend and 35-year-old Jonny Evans was tasked with holding the defence together.
Ten Hag’s strategy was shown to be ludicrous when he started Christian Erikson at the centre of midfield with Scott McTominay playing as an attacking midfielder.
In the second half of the match, McTominay was moved to a defensive midfielder. Ten Hag contradicting himself in front of 75,000 people does not look good.
Ten Hag’s poor decisions were also highlighted by Sofyan Amrabat who started against City despite lasting only 45 minutes against Copenhagen in the Champions League.
Ten Hag pulled him out of the game against City at halftime. Amrabat is a typical example of United’s poor decisions in signing new players. Lesser players tend to play well in the World Cup, as Amrabat did for Morocco.
Ten Hag saw him and wanted him – he was Ten Hag’s choice but his level of performance is well below Premier League standards.
United paid an obscene amount of money for Anthony and Mason Mount. Both have failed so far.
Last weekend, Anthony was a disgrace playing with ugly displays of petulance and arrogance in the closing minutes of the game.
Mount came on at half time and his performance echoed what I have heard in the press box so many times since he came to Old Trafford, “What does Mason Mount do for United?” Again, he was a player Ten Hag insisted on buying.
Partey injured again and out until December
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta is worried about Thomas Partey and his continuous injury problems. I have been told that the midfielder will be out until December.
The last time Thomas started a match was in August. He suffered a groin injury in training last week. Arteta said: “I don’t know how long he will be out but I think it will be weeks.” The Ghanaian became one of Arteta’s most trusted players.
He continued: “It’s a big concern because when Thomas is fit and available, we’ve seen the results and the impact he has. He is already pushing my medical staff and wants to return as quickly as possible but we must protect him because he is a critical player for us.”
Captain Martin Odegaard has also been suffering from a hip problem and was rested last weekend against Sheffield United. Arsenal travel to Newcastle this weekend and admit they will be in a tough battle.
Thiago and his family hint at staying with Chelsea
Thiago Silva gave the clearest indication yet that he is willing to stay and finish his career at Stamford Bridge despite him being linked with a return to his native Brazil at the beginning of this season.
His current contract expires in June. The 39-year-old is a key part of Mauricio Pochettino’s strategy and there is no doubt the team performs to a higher level with him in defence.
One of the main reasons keeping Thiago at Stamford Bridge is his family, who have settled in very well since moving from France. Thiago’s 14-year-old son Isago plays for Chelsea’s Under-14 team and many fans who have seen him play say he is already better than Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly.
Injuries to Wesley Fofana and difficult issues regarding Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile have left the defence short on first-team players.
Chelsea are under-performing and Pochettino is under pressure to turn things around because the new owner, Todd Boehly, has invested nearly £ 1 billion in the club, and as a businessman, he expects a return on his money.
Despite all that expense, Chelsea will search for another centre-back in January. Axel Disasi was brought in from Monaco but the feeling within the club is that he is not reaching the promised level.
Chalobah is expected to be sold this January. Chelsea’s recruitment team have been watching Bayer Leverkusen star Edmond Tapsoba.
Why Chilwell is off to America
Mauricio Pochettino has explained Ben Chilwell’s flight to Los Angeles and said it is because of his current injury. Now I can tell you that it was Chelsea’s plan all along to change Ben’s environment to help him cope with the boredom during a long-term recovery period.
Pochettino said: “It was the plan and this happens at different clubs. It was the same when I was at Tottenham and Southampton. Sometimes you want to change the scenery for the player.
To spend 12 hours every day at home and in our medical room is difficult even with our fantastic facilities and players need a change of atmosphere.”
Ben expects to be in America for about three weeks by which time he should be well on the way to recovering and it is hoped he will start a match before Christmas.
Postecoglou: You haven’t seen anything yet!
Tottenham coach Ange Postecoglou has angrily denied that his Tottenham team are better without Harry Kane as many people have suggested.
However, he admitted that without Kane, he has had a chance to create a new Spurs approach which he called a ‘different dynamic’.
Spurs have scored 22 goals in the Premier League so far and that is more than Manchester City or Arsenal. However, Postecoglou says we haven’t seen anything yet and there is far more to come from his evolving team.
He said this week: “I think our main growth will come in the attacking side of the game. A lot of our movements are still not natural and fluent like we want them to be.”
On Monday night, he said his forward line of Richarlison, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Son Heung-Min will be available to line up at home against a fragile Chelsea team.
Klopp now has two in mind to replace Salah
As I exclusively revealed to you in this column, Liverpool have identified Napoli’s Victor Osimhen as their prime target should Mo Salah leave the club.
However, Bayern Munich’s former Manchester City player Leroy Sane has now entered the picture. But the Reds’ supporters are not convinced Sane can bring the same amount of goals regularly scored by Salah.
Saudi club Al-Ittihad have put huge sums of money on the table, approximately £140m, to lure Salah to the Middle East. There are two main reasons why supporters think Sane might not be the right player.
First, he will be 28 in January and therefore outside Liverpool’s age recruitment policy. Secondly, he originally turned down a move to Liverpool in favour of Manchester City and that does not sit well with the faithful.
Neto out for two weeks
Wolves have confirmed to me this week that Pedro Neto will be back in action in two weeks. He is a very important player for the team.
He injured a hamstring in Saturday’s draw with Newcastle and was stretchered off with manager Gary O’Neil fearing the worst. Neto has scored just once this season but made seven assists.
Raya wants to sign for Arsenal permanently
Arsenal on-loan goalkeeper David Raya has told both the Gunners and his parent club Brentford that he wants a permanent move to the Emirates Stadium.
The current deal is that Arsenal paid Brentford £3m for this season and if the move is completed next summer, the fee will be £27m.
Despite reports to the contrary, I can tell you that Raya and Aaron Ramsdale have a good relationship, train together and are friends despite Aaron losing his place to Raya this year.
Coach Mikel Arteta said he does not view either goalkeeper as No1 and will rotate them during the season, even possibly using both in a single match.
Silva’s reason for staying loyal to Guardiola and City
Bernado Silva has proven over and again that he is a Manchester City man. Rejecting Saudi millions and offers to join Paris Saint-Germain or Barcelona.
The reason for such loyalty is his wish to work alongside Pep Guardiola to achieve a fourth unprecedented consecutive Premier League title.
That feat has never been achieved before since the Football League was formed back in 1892 – yes, 131 years ago! He said this week: “We heard that four titles in a row has never been done before so we want to try to do that.
It is so tough every year, especially when you remember that two of the titles were just a difference of one point and won in the last games of the season.
We are going to try to keep going and create history, making this team one of the best ever.”
The decision is Sancho’s
Jadon Sancho’s career at Manchester United looks to be nearly at an end, as widely reported. He now has a decision to make.
Saudi club Al-Shabab have said they will offer a way out for Jadon this January if he cannot end his feud with United coach Erik Ten Hag.
The figure being mentioned is £30million which would be a bargain price.
Sancho earns approximately £300k-a-week but that is a figure the Saudi club could match. Al-Shabab’s rival club Al-Ettifaq have already tabled a loan bid for the 23-year-old but that was rejected by United.
Diably says the Premier League is better than Bundesliga
With Aston Villa riding high, their £43million record signing Moussa Diably says their best is yet to come this season. The French forward scored his first goal at Villa Park in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Luton.
He said this week: “I have waited for this goal for a long time and I know I can do even better.” The former Bayer Leverkusen star compared his current life to the German Bundesliga and commented: “I like the Premier League better.”