The squad at Manchester United have been affected by constant speculation over the future of Erik ten Hag, centre-back Jonny Evans has declared.
Following a hard-fought 0-0 draw at Aston Villa on Sunday, United have lost only once in the last seven – and are winless in five. While both are true, the second is a more accurate representation of the mood around the club and the performance levels of late.
United were thrashed by Tottenham in the Premier League last weekend and gave up a two-goal lead in midweek against Porto, eventually drawing 3-3, before the stalemate at Villa Park.
Amid ongoing questions to head coach Ten Hag about his future, the United hierarchy are also due to meet this week to discuss performance, with some suggesting it may spell the end of his tenure.
United sit 14th in the table domestically, have the second-worst attack after only scoring five goals in seven games and are winless from two in the Europa League, 21st in that mammoth table of 36.
And after the draw with Villa, Evans – who was named man of the match for his part in the clean sheet – acknowledged that the players are hearing the criticism of their boss and allowing that to impact on their performance levels on the pitch.
Even so, he suggested that the “spirit” shown in the draw was a positive which could be taken.
“It does affect the players. It’s on our minds too. I think the more experience I’ve got in my career I’ve made sure I do everything to be ready and give everything I can to the team,” Evans said after the match.
“That was the important thing to show the spirit in the team. Everyone competed as much as they could. That’s a pleasing thing to see.”
Ten Hag attempted to downplay suggestions of underperformance by pointing to the shut-out at Villa Park and at chances created in other matches, while laying the need for improvement in finishing at the feet of his attackers.
“Internal we are disappointed and we know we need to do better, especially we need to score more because in this moment after this block of games that’s the area we’re really short,” he said. “All the other areas I think we are doing really well. We have four clean sheets so that says a lot about the defending and the organisation.
“Also now the defending of defensive transitions we are doing really well, so we are really improving on that point.
“Our build-up play is good – we are calm, composed. We’re creating the chances apart from today.
“I think today we should have created more, but that area in the box of the opponent we have to be more ruthless, more clinical, more killing and we have to work on this.”
After the international break, United face Brentford, Fenerbahce and West Ham in their next fixtures.