Patrice Evra has sung the praises of Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag and heralded the three changes he made to his starting line-up to "get rid of the negativity".
United endured a nightmare start to the campaign as they lost their season opener at home to Brighton before their humiliating four-goal loss at Brentford the following week. Ten Hag has transformed results since, winning four Premier League games on the bounce – including landmark victories over Liverpool and Arsenal.
After the loss at Brentford, Ten Hag made three notable changes to his starting line-up, which he has stuck with for the subsequent Premier League matches. All the moves were bold calls, including the dropping of club captain Harry Maguire and United's highest-earning player, Cristiano Ronaldo.
United have now built a central defensive partnership between Raphael Varane – who sat out the opening two games – and new signing Lisandro Martinez, who have conceded just two goals in the five matches they have played alongside each other in all competitions. Maguire has been benched for this run of form.
Ronaldo – while starting in the Europa League against Real Sociedad and FC Sheriff – has been excluded from the Premier League starting line-ups, with Marcus Rashford establishing himself as the central striker – flanked by Antony and Jadon Sancho.
Anthony Martial, who has suffered fresh injury setbacks, also appears to be ahead of Ronaldo in Ten Hag's thinking – introduced at half-time in the victory over Liverpool ahead of the Portuguese forward.
Evra, who was United's starting left-back for a period of seven years, also believes selecting Tyrell Malacia ahead of Luke Shaw in the position has also had a net positive impact on the team. "I'm always positive, when I talk about United I talk with my heart," Evra told Betfair. "The first two games were a nightmare, losing at home and away to Brentford.
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"What I like about Ten Hag, and we have to give him a lot of credit, I think he has been fooled like other previous managers at the club. He got the players in preseason, everyone looked sharp, everyone looked great so you feel that you come in and maybe he thought he could do better than the previous manager with the same players, but it wasn't the case and that's why I think after the Brentford game he made some massive decisions."
Evra explained: "He dropped the captain, he put Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench, he gave the left-back Malacia an opportunity and that was a massive statement. Things changed with a few players, it's not because they were playing that bad, but around those players, there was a lot of negativity, and sometimes you have to get rid of this negativity. He had the courage to do it."
