I’ve seen many fans and pundits make this claim. Do you think Manchester United players aren’t playing as well as they can in hope to get Ten Hag sacked. I’ve seen this argument used against Rashford as people since he’s got his new contract he’s just content to get his money and play as well.
Though Hoijund has claimed the players all back Ten Hag still https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/09/erik-ten-hag-manchester-united-squad-backing-rasmus-hojlund
What I think fans don’t realise and ex players forget is how small the margins are between the best players and teams and crap ones. Small changes in confidence and form can have massive consequences to results.
Look at Liverpool last year. Over the last few years Liverpool are a team you’d never accuse of ‘downing tools’ one if their biggest strengths was their mentality and fighting spirit. They also had a proven world class manager who the players wouldn’t go against but at times last season they look liked they’d forgotten how to pass the ball 5 yards. The reason was they where all mentally tired from the season before and a few of them had lost half a step. This completely ruined a well oiled machine and the results reflected that.
If that can happen to a successful group like Liverpool it’s no surprise it can happen to united. The problem is Man U is a confused and dysfunctional club and this feeds into the players. When things go wrong the players heads go down and people hide. Players don’t want to be in firing line and everyone just focuses on not making a mistake rather than trying to win a game.
Liverpool are built on a cycle and have peaked physically and mentally and had the downwards swing and are now rebuilding and preparing to peak again. You can’t sustain that physical and mental performance without the deepest of squads. I think a large part of the problem at UTD is that they have never even had a full cycle, they are constantly in turmoil and without overall structure or plan due to issues with how the club at large is set up.