Scott McTominay shared some interesting thoughts on Manchester United’s performance against Southampton and where the team are at.
A narrow 1-0 win, United fought hard at the St Mary’s Stadium, with the players having clearly expected a gritty encounter.
As said by a knackered Scotsman in his post-match interview, “Sometimes you have to be dogs in games and grind out results like that.”
McTominay insists that the squad are well aware of that standards must be maintained after their six-point week, particularly given the context United found themselves in after the 4-0 mauling at Brentford.
“The result in the Brentford game was the biggest reality check we could have had… So far, we’re getting that reaction. Everyone’s fighting and digging in for each other.
“It’s slow steps building but the reality check against Brentford… It takes a lot of balls to come back from that as a team.”
United needed to fight for the wins against both Liverpool and Southampton, and McTominay believes that the team spirit fostered since their shared humiliation is key to continuing these positive results.
But the players cannot rest on their laurels, with the Brentford game clearly still in everyone’s minds:
“We’ve got to make sure that team spirit keeps getting bigger and bigger.
“We just can’t let that dip now. As soon as we dip, something like that could happen again.”
With United having to dig in for long periods of both matches this week, many fans will soon be hoping to see evidence of a move towards the positive, proactive football Erik ten Hag is known for, a fact not lost on the midfielder:
“[It’s] Something that we really need to work on in terms of dictating the game in the opposition’s half and keeping the ball.”
Until Ten Hag’s vision is fully instilled, fans will surely settle for resolute and dogged performances
Fans will have to wait for Ten Hag to fully instil his vision, but they will certainly have patience so long as United continue to show fight and resolve in tough fixtures such as these.
