Manchester United struggle with culture of misery as players enjoy international respite

Luke Shaw may not have planned to highlight a difference between club and country but his praise for Gareth Southgate was inadvertently damning. England have fashioned a culture that their players like.

"The environment here that Gareth creates, you always enjoy it,” said the Manchester United left-back. “When I come here, it's about playing games with a smile on my face. It's always important to feel like you're wanted. Especially here, I always feel that.”

A defender then had to backtrack a little. “I'm not saying I don't at United,” Shaw said, but his earlier comments lent themselves to that conclusion.

They came a couple of days after Paul Pogba, often a seemingly sunny character, had spoken of the depression he has suffered in recent years. It first struck him, he said, when Jose Mourinho was United manager. As Pogba said, it was a reminder that wealth and fame are no insulation from mental-health issues.

Perhaps they would have occurred anyway, but it reflected a wider problem. Too few people seem to actually enjoy playing for United. It can be a consequence of results, of nine years that have largely contained underachievement, all under the microscope of being at one of the three biggest clubs in the world.

Like Shaw, Harry Maguire was outstanding in Euro 2020. The United captain has had a still more traumatic campaign at club level. He has looked haunted, a man fearing the worst before it inevitably happens.

Harry Maguire has looked a haunted figure at Manchester United this season. Getty

Marcus Rashford seems to lost his spark and his joie de vivre. Ralf Rangnick admitted Jadon Sancho was initially weighed down by the pressure of playing for the club.

Donny van de Beek may have had the opposite problem: he