Manchester United’s troubled season hit a new low on Wednesday when they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by a much-changed Newcastle United, losing 3-0.
Two of our United experts, Carl Anka and Andy Mitten, joined Ian Irving for our United podcast Talk of the Devils to discuss the loss and what happens now.
You can read the full transcript below but here’s a taster:
Mitten: “I think some of them are simply not good enough to play to the level we expect Manchester United players to be at. We saw that starkly against Manchester City. We saw it a little bit against Newcastle United’s B team, So you can put that back onto recruitment.
“Fans like to say, you know, no heart, no passion. I don’t like that. And I know that players hate it because you’re basically accusing them of being dishonest and I don’t think they are dishonest. “But we have seen repeat behaviour from several players and we know what comes next. The manager loses his job, and then someone else comes in and there’s a honeymoon period and and we think, okay, things are getting back better again. And after one or two or three years, that manager loses his job again.
“Where are the leaders in this team? Where are the captains?”
Anka: “They seem frozen by fear, so they don’t do the correct things in possession. They forget their defensive duties. And when things really stop going that way, they start picking up silly yellow cards.
“Honestly, I cannot confidently say I see a way for Ten Hag to fix this. It’s also quite hard to explain what Ten Hag is doing as he himself is becoming harder and harder to understand.”
