´I don´t see them as a team´ – Heskey says Ten Hag´s Man Utd have lost air of ´invincibility´

Manchester United have lost the air of “invincibility” which characterised Alex Ferguson’s trophy-laden reign at Old Trafford.

That is the view of former England striker Emile Heskey, who sees Erik ten Hag’s Red Devils as a group of expensively assembled individuals, rather than a coherent team.

United have made an underwhelming start to their second season under Ten Hag, sitting eighth in the Premier League table after 11 matches despite Saturday’s last-gasp 1-0 win at Fulham.

In Europe, the Red Devils began their Champions League group-stage campaign with back-to-back defeats to Bayern Munich and Galatasaray before needing Andre Onana to save a stoppage-time penalty in a hard-fought 1-0 win over Copenhagen.

With Ten Hag attracting criticism from supporters and pundits, Heskey believes his tenure shares many similarities with those of his predecessors Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho.

Asked why Ten Hag has failed to revive United’s fortunes, Heskey told Stats Perform: “It’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? You look at Ole… he never got [United into form], Jose never got that either.

“There’s a consistency with… I wouldn’t say this bunch of players, but with the club bringing players in that they’re not able to string together and gel.

“I don’t see them as a team, I don’t see them as a team that’s going to fight for each other. Look at Spurs, a team that’s going to really dig down and fight for each other.

“It happens with eras, you go through that. They’ve lost that invincibility.

“[United] won the game before the actual game started in my era. Teams that would go there and you’re already set up to lose.

“[Now] teams are actually going to Old Trafford and saying, ‘Well, we’re going to win this, this is how we’re going to set up’. They’ve lost that invincibility.”

5 – Manchester United have already lost five games at Old Trafford this season, having only lost two games at home in the entirety of last season. Ominous. pic.twitter.com/OjcYHxsaEi

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 2, 2023

Forward Marcus Rashford is among the United players attracting scrutiny after failing to reach the heights he hit last term, when he scored 30 goals across all competitions.

Rashford was criticised by Ten Hag for going out to celebrate his birthday just hours after 3-0 defeat to rivals Manchester City recently. Having missed Saturday’s win at Fulham through injury, he then hit out at what he described as “malicious rumours” regarding his future on social media.

Rashford signed a new five-year contract with United in July, but Heskey does not believe that has impacted his form, saying: “I don’t think it’s anything to do with the contract.

“As fans, we’re looking for something. The reality is there’s a lot of onus on him being a local lad, there’s a lot of pressure on him.

“He needs to figure out how to deal with that pressure again, like he did last season, because there was a lot of pressure on him but he managed to still get the goals.

“The fascinating thing is he’s probably giving the same sort of performance as last season, but he was finishing his chances.

“Now, when you’re not finishing your chances, everyone’s looking at the money, everyone’s looking at your lifestyle. Everyone’s looking at what you do here, what you don’t do there.

“You just want to concentrate on football. But if you just concentrate on football and it eats away at you and you have a mental breakdown, then you’re saying, ‘why didn’t you go and do something else outside of football?’

“I think for Marcus, he just needs to figure out, ‘what’s good for me?'”

Rashford has only scored once in 14 appearances for United across all competitions this season, despite attempting 38 shots totalling 3.82 expected goals (xG) in those matches.

The boss has confirmed @MarcusRashford will be available for our tie against FC Copenhagen