Jamie Carragher has '20 years ago' theory on Steve McClaren Manchester United influence

Jamie Carragher has stated his belief that Erik ten Hag's assistant Steve McClaren might be influencing Manchester United's style of play., suggesting it might be outdated.

He said on the Stick to Football podcast: "Do you think Steve McClaren is an influence? The reason I say that is because when you talk about the style of play, it's probably the style of play that we all played."

Ten Hag is under pressure due to the team's poor performance this season. Despite a high point with their Carabao Cup win last season, United are currently seventh in the Premier League and have been knocked out of all European competitions.

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Carragher continued: "Sometimes you might play in Europe, counterattacking, or you play a small team at home, and you know you are going to have lots of the ball. United feel like it's football from our day, 20 years ago.

"The first couple of games they played Brighton and Brentford and it was [David] De Gea trying to get on the ball, he was struggling on the ball, it was Christian Eriksen coming really deep to receive it, he (Ten Hag) wanted Frankie De Jong who's a real footballing midfielder, and he went away from that and had great success last season."

"Great spell, won a cup, got to a cup final, did well in Europe, so I don't know if there was something that, with Steve McClaren being at Manchester United, being there under Sir Alex Ferguson as well, almost saying this is the way Manchester United play."

Roy Keane said he feels Ten Hag needs to bring more of his personality into his team to see improvements.

"Sometimes the team can reflect the attitude of the