Christian Eriksen agrees with Bruno Fernandes' surprising explanation for Manchester United defeat

Christian Eriksen has blamed Manchester United's defeat in the Manchester derby on a 'lack of belief' in the dressing room.

Manchester City won their third successive derby on Sunday afternoon when defeating United 6-3 in dominant fashion at the Etihad, with Erling Haaland and Phil Foden each scoring a hat-trick to condemn Erik ten Hag's side to humiliation.

United had taken 12 points from matches against Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal prior to the derby, but that didn't stop Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes from discussing a lack of belief among the players after the loss to City.

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Fernandes, speaking after the game, criticised the lack of belief and togetherness on the pitch, and Eriksen agreed. "It's quite simple, it's a lack of belief," Eriksen told Match of the Day. "When you don't believe on the pitch then you can't win games, that is unacceptable. We get undisciplined at following rules and you get hammered, that's happened today.

"For me, it was a surprise. We were not on the front foot, we were not brave on the ball and there were spaces to play but we were not brave enough. All the credit to City, but it's nothing to do with City, our performance was not good.

"It had to do with the belief as individuals and as a team. From the first minute I felt it and at half-time, we changed things and we changed attitude. We saw a different Manchester United after half-time and we scored goals, we created some more.

"On the ball, we were braver, we came in the opponent's half and we scored three goals. At this moment I can't think about the positives. We let our fans down, we let ourselves down and we're hugely disappointed."

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