Manchester United players still cannot bring themselves to talk about their worst season in Premier League history.
United ended last season in sixth place with 58 points, their worst total of the Premier League era, as the fallen giants hit their lowest point since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked and interim boss Ralf Rangnick won just 11 of his 28 games in charge as the Red Devils became a laughing stock in world football.
Erik ten Hag has been brought in to resurrect United, with midfielder Scott McTominay admitting last season's nadir is still too painful for the players to discuss with each other. But McTominay, speaking on United's pre-season tour of Australia, said players must use last season's misery as motivation to ensure they never find themselves at such a low ebb again.
“It's obviously difficult to speak about last year,” McTominay said. “Obviously it touched a nerve in terms of when we speak about it again as a group. It's not nice.
“But that's got to be the motivation now to put everything back to normal and obviously go for trophies again under the new boss, because I know that this squad is more than capable of doing that.”
McTominay, 25, one of the straightest talkers at United, acknowledged the criticism the players received last season and said they must be big enough to take it – or find a different club. “You’re playing for Manchester United, you’re going to get criticised,” he said.
“If you think you’re going to come and play for United and you’re not going to get a little bit of criticism here and there, then you're in the wrong job, because that's just not how it works at this club.
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“Maybe you need to have a little look in the mirror, because that's just part and parcel of the game. Everyone gets criticised, that's the world we live in, social media criticism. You only see how much you want to see it. That's part and parcel of it as well.”
Ten Hag has been working United's players hard in pre-season, physically and mentally, with double training sessions and tactical meetings as he tries to implement his philosophy. McTominay admitted it has been one of the toughest pre-seasons he has endured, but said United's players must follow Ten Hag's strict approach if they are to have any chance of getting back to the top.
“Obviously we've had some tough pre-seasons, but this is up there with one of the most difficult ones,” said McTominay. “But it's accumulation, it's getting miles in the legs and it's getting everybody accustomed to the volume of work that we're wanting to do.
“When you've got a new manager, there's a lot of new ideas and different things that he wants you to work on as a group, and individually as well, which is so important. It's important that we keep pushing in the right direction to achieve what we want to achieve. There's a lot of different ideas and a lot of variations.
“He’s very clear in meetings what he wants us to do and how he wants us to approach the games as well. Obviously for us it's important that you take that message on board. We've got to come together as a team and obviously show everything that he's been working on the training pitch in the games.
“The manager’s standards are high so you’ve got to get used to that, which is maybe a little bit foreign for some players. They’ve got to make sure that everything that they do on and off the pitch is to the best of their ability.
“I didn't really know what to expect coming back in but I'm certainly pleased with what I've seen coming back in and obviously I'm excited to see where it leads us in the future.”
United face Crystal Palace in Melbourne on Tuesday before flying to Perth, where they will take on Aston Villa before returning home.
