Scott McTominay has claimed the whole of Manchester United's squad is buying into Erik ten Hag's philosophy.
After two humiliating defeats against Brighton and Brentford, Ten Hag's tenure did not begin as planned, but United have since emphatically bounced back to take a maximum of 12 points against Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal.
The Reds' performances in the Premier League have been positive and United head into the Manchester derby at the weekend with a degree of optimism, with Ten Hag looking to get a result in his first game in charge against Manchester City.
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David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick all lost their first league derbies against City as United boss, with Sir Alex Ferguson the last to win his first encounter in March 1987, so Ten Hag is hoping to break the mould.
The players have been effusive in their praise of Ten Hag in recent weeks and McTominay believes that the whole squad buying into his ideas explains the club's improvement, which has seen United climb up the table after a disappointing start.
“Whenever you go away you’ve always got half an eye on coming back and helping the team here so no matter where you’re playing, you always want to give your best,” McTominay told United's in-house media on Friday.
“That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing over the last six to eight weeks, whenever we started back this season, and we just want to keep it going. For us, it was a real tough start. We knew that and now we’ve got real good players and a real good group in terms of everyone together and fighting for each other and that real solidity, knowing we can all rely on each other.
“The lads on the bench, whoever that may be – it could be myself, it could be anybody – they know their role when they come to the pitch and they’re just as important as the boys who are playing. The manager has reiterated that numerous amounts of times.
“There have been many games when players have come off the bench. Arsenal was a great example, Liverpool. They’ve made a big, big difference and it’s helped the lads who have started the game a lot.”
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