Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville was talking with his former teammate Roy Keane before the Manchester derby the other day and stated that coach Erik ten Hag will have three crucial games in the next three months which will determine his faith as United‘s coach. First was the derby, which he lost 3-1 and now he is facing league leaders Liverpool twice (FA Cup and the Premier League) and also Arsenal. But unlike Neville, who is still supportive of the Dutch tactician and believes he should stay for another year, it seems that the players are not so convinced. Apparently, they don‘t need those two games against Liverpool to find out if their boss is staying. He is not.Never lacking optimism: ‘We can still be in the Champions League‘British Daily Mail writes that that many players in the United squad believe it is likely new co-owners INEOS will make a change at the end of the season and sack the Dutchman after two years at the helm. Ten Hag himself declared he ‘doesn‘t care‘ since he has a contract for another year and is in constant communication with minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS sporting director Sir Dave Brailsford, but in reality he could get the sack come June. After all, Ratcliffe is preparing a big cleansing in the sporting department, as basically all parts of the sporting department have been changed – except the coach. The problem is, nobody knows the criteria for Ten Hag‘s survival. It would surely be the Champions League spot, which is now almost impossible with 11 points advantage that Aston Villa has, but United could end up in the fifth place, which could lead to the place in the biggest European competition under certain circumstances. Also, winning the FA Cup could be one thing that could help Ten Hag.Ratcliffe admits that Manchester’s culture is ‘not set up for success’According to the reports, the players believe that their boss will be sacked but they still support him, even thou they have their doubts about the Dutchman‘s methods. During the course of the season, they had their doubts with the handiling of Jadon Sancho, and now they are complaining about Ten Hag‘s training methods. Basically all Premier League‘s big clubs had their problems with injuries this season, but United‘s players believe that their issues have something to do with their coach. United have recorded 47 separate cases of injuries and illness this season which have led to players missing at least one game and they were without nine players in a derby match on Sunday. Bruno Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho and Diogo Dalot are the only United outfield players to have not suffered an injury this season. Some players believe this number of injuries was provoked not only with a huge number of games played (62 last season), but due to intensity in training. Their 28 injured players are second to Newcastle‘s 29 and United have lost players for a combined 979 days this season, the sixth-most in the Premier League.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE1/8 finals – second legTuesday23:00: (2.55) Sociedad (3.45) PSG (2.90)23:00: (1.30) Bayern (5.80) Lazio (9.00)Wednesday23:00: (1.60) Real Madrid (4.20) RB Leipzig (6.00)23:00: (1.15) Man.City (8.00) Copenhagen (16.0)Tuesday the 12th23:00: (1.77) Barcelona (3.60) Napoli (4.80)23:00: (1.28) Arsenal (5.70) Porto (10.5)Wednesday the 13th23:00: (3.05) Atl.Madrid (3.30) Inter (2.55)23:00: (2.15) Dortmund (3.50) PSV (3.30)***odds are subject to change***
