With Manchester United’s slender survival hopes in the Champions League hinging on beating Bayern Munich at Old Trafford on Tuesday, humiliation a few days earlier by Bournemouth hardly inspired confidence.
Yet despite Erik ten Hag’s team lurching from one bad result to another with 11 defeats in 23 games in all competitions this season, midfielder Scott McTominay says the players are fully behind the embattled Dutchman.
McTominay also conceded that has not always been the case with some of Ten Hag’s predecessors where the situation sometimes became toxic.
“It is the players’ responsibility first and foremost, the players know that as well,” he told reporters on Monday.
“It is not just the case like (with) some of the other managers where it has been a little bit toxic at times.
“The boys are firmly behind the manager and that is the be all and end all. We have got (an) amazing coaching staff as well.”
Unsubstantiated media reports of dressing room splits ended with four organisations being banned for Ten Hag’s news conference ahead of last week’s Premier League game against Chelsea and the 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth hardly helped calm the turbulent Old Trafford waters.
“People can get lost in translation and get carried away with what the players think and what they say behind closed doors — we just want to do well for the football club and it is as simple as that,” McTominay said.
United must beat runaway Group A leaders Bayern and hope the other match between Galatasaray and Copenhagen ends in a draw if they are to reach the last-16.
It is a big if, although such is the wildly unpredictable nature of United’s squad, victory over Bayern is not out of the question. It will just depend on which United turns up, the one that outplayed Chelsea last week or the one that produced a shambolic performance against Bournemouth.
United opened their Group A campaign with a 4-3 loss at Bayern, followed by a 3-2 defeat at home by Galatasaray in which they twice led. They were also 2-0 ahead away to Galatasaray in their penultimate group game, but ended up drawing 3-3.
Bayern are unbeaten in 39 Champions League group-stage games. That makes United’s task all the more daunting task.
Bayern — who have already qualified for the knockout stages — won’t just be playing to add a 40th game to that unbeaten record. After a shock 5-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, forward Thomas Mueller called on teammates to show their emotion at Old Trafford.
“We need to tap into our anger, but we can’t lose our heads,” he said.
It was Bayern's third loss of the season but the first with England captain Harry Kane in the starting lineup.
Kane has 22 goals in 19 games for Bayern, numbers that resemble his Munich predecessor Robert Lewandowski. Kane has a career seven goals in 20 games against United and scored in the entertaining 4-3 win in Munich in September.
