I heard what Erik ten Hag said in Manchester United press conference and had to ask what he meant

Erik ten Hag might have been grateful for a couple of weeks of breathing space. After a disastrous defeat to Liverpool and a confrontational post-match press conference at Old Trafford, the dust settled during the international break.

That can be a worrying two weeks for a manager feeling the pressure, but the public show of support that chief executive Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth offered to Ten Hag at the start of the break took the sting out of it. The only note of concern for the Dutchman was when a team he coached in a testimonial at FC Utrecht for Mark van der Maarel was erroneously reported as having lost, rather than won.

The heat did crank up towards the end of the international break, when Cristiano Ronaldo's appearance on the Rio Ferdinand Presents dropped and featured another rebuke of Ten Hag from Ronaldo. It's understood that the podcast wasn't recorded recently and it could have been awkward when Ferdinand was at Carrington on Thursday recording a feature for TNT Sports, but Ten Hag wasn't overly perturbed by its content.

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His response to the Ronaldo question in his pre-match press conference for the Southampton game was relatively low key and after the fireworks after Liverpool, this was a more mundane appearance in front of the cameras. The support from Berrada and Ashworth has eased the pressure on a Dutchman.

There is no doubt he remains in the spotlight, however. He has won just 16 of the previous 41 Premier League matches and United head to Southampton in 14th place in this season's (very) embryonic table