Manchester United will soon reveal what Erik ten Hag said in post Man City team meeting

Repetition in interviews can often irk fans of clubs who have just suffered heavy losses. Manchester United fans felt this often last season.

And they would be forgiven for feeling listless once more after hearing Erik ten Hag again roll out the word “unacceptable” and lament his side’s poor start following Sunday’s 6-3 reality check against Manchester City, harking back to memories of the excuses at Brentford earlier in the season.

But a recurrent tune isn’t always a monotonous sound. The weekend’s defeat is different to the 4-0 drubbing to Brentford in many ways. And, just as United’s mini and belated second-half revival was mildly encouraging, so were some of the post-match comments from key figures.

READ MORE:Anthony Martial makes admission about Manchester United performance vs Man City

To Ten Hag, the diagnosis was “quite simple”. “Today they didn't bring the belief,” he said. "I am very disappointed, especially at the lack of belief. I didn't expect it.”

“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.”

Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen both agreed with their manager. The former reasoned that the poor display was down to "attitude and the belief” while the latter admitted "we missed a bit of courage.”

The fact that squad members are on the same page as their manager at least eliminates the problem that Ralf Rangnick spoke of last season. It makes the recovery process much easier and smoother too.

Ten Hag scheduled a team meeting for Monday following the defeat to the champions and this “lack of belief” will undoubtedly be addressed. It’s a shortfall that Ten Hag will tell them has only