Ashley Young names two Manchester United players who have 'no confidence'

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Evening Standard

·30 September 2024

Ashley Young names two Manchester United players who have 'no confidence'

Fallout from Sunday’s defeat to Tottenham continues

Ashley Young picked out Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho for showing ‘no confidence’ during Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat to Tottenham.

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United fell behind after just three minutes when Brennan Johnson scored and then went down to 10 men with Bruno Fernandes sent off before half-time.

After the break Spurs pressed home their advantage with goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke to leave the Red Devils languishing in 12th place in the Premier League.

And Young - who won the league at United in the 2012/13 season - believes both Rashford and Garnacho are struggling for confidence.

“I think it just showed today, where you’ve got the two wingers going one-v-one and instead of going to attack the space in behind, they’d rather go back and play the safe pass,” he told Sky Sports.

“That’s when you know you’ve got a winger with no confidence.

“As a winger previously as well, when you’re here, when you see a one-v-one, that’s when your eyes light up, that’s your time to shine.

“When players are not doing that, turning it down and wanting to go backwards, it’s not the way to be doing it.

“It’s one of those things. They are going to have to have a meeting between themselves and work out what is going wrong.”

United are now without a win from their last three games with Erik ten Hag facing a huge week where he takes his side to Porto on Thursday before going to Aston Villa on Sunday.

And Young - who now plays for Everton - has questioned the spirit of the current United crop and believes they need a crisis meeting to sort things out.

“You want to be on the front foot, you want to be attacking, you want to get the fans on side, you want to work hard,” he added.

“There’s none of that out there and that was just shown today that the players just look lost.

“We had a DNA at Manchester United where you’re on the front foot, you go and press teams, you squeeze teams, you get the ball back, you get corners, you get throw-ins… there was just none of it.

“It was like they went out today and they were just happy for Tottenham to have the ball and over the years that’s not been the Manchester United way.

“What is going to be the change? I do think there needs to be a crisis meeting.

“Those players in that dressing room need to have a look at themselves and have a meeting together without any staff there, just with the players, and work out where it’s going wrong, what’s happening and what they need to do.

“It’s getting back to basics because what is going on right now, the basics are not being done.

“There’s too much individuality out there. You’re not really seeing a team and you’re not seeing that togetherness.

“Christian Eriksen said in the week that FC Twente wanted it more. That’s not even possible.

“There’s no way you can have a team that wants it more, especially when you’re at home and you’re starting the season wanting to get rid of what happened last season, what happened in the last few years.

“I’ve been here when it was successful, I’ve been here when it wasn’t successful. It’s a difficult place but you know when you’re in this club that you’re part of that DNA, you know the size of the club, you know where you can take the club to and it’s just doing the basics.”