'We are together' - Erik ten Hag rejects rumours of a mutiny at Manchester United

Under-fire Erik ten Hag is convinced he retains the backing of Manchester United’s players after the club were angered by reports he had lost some of the dressing room.

The Dutchman’s challenging second campaign in charge continued on Saturday night, when a lifeless display saw the Red Devils fall to a meek 1-0 defeat at Newcastle.

A 10th defeat of the season led to some reports that Ten Hag had lost the confidence of up to half of his players, with concerns over his style, tactics and signings mentioned.

Those reports led to the club banning four media outlets shortly before Tuesday’s press conference nominally set up to preview the midweek Premier League clash against Chelsea.

United said the action was taken for not “contacting us first to give us the opportunity to comment, challenge or contextualise”, adding they believed it was “an important principle to defend”.

Asked if he believed he still had the requisite buy-in from his players to be successful, Ten Hag said: “Oh yes, I’m sure.

“But you can see, for instance, the comeback against Brentford, the Burnley game, the Fulham game, so every time the team is there, showed great character.

“Great determination, resilient, so yeah, we are together.

“And you can see you can’t play such great football what we did lately if there is no unity.”

13 - Manchester United haven’t won a Premier League away game against a team starting the day in the top eight of the table since October 2021 against Tottenham under Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Since then, the Red Devils have drawn three and lost 10 of their 13 such games. Unlucky. pic.twitter.com/YUfoYDVgkA

Ten Hag downplayed Newcastle as “one bad performance” after the 3-0 league win at Everton and the 3-3 Champions League draw at