'You hear things' - how the Manchester United dressing room responded to criticism

Of all the Manchester United players to board the team coach at Southampton, Matthijs de Ligt received one of the more mild greetings even as he strayed nearer to the waiting supporters than most teammates.

De Ligt, the matchwinner on his second start, was an appropriate mixed zone delegate while Erik ten Hag was chaperoned from broadcaster to broadcaster before his press conference.

The only occasion United have lost to a promoted side in their last 31 matches was in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's final stand in front of the Sir John Elton Stand at Vicarage Road. He was no longer standing the following day and was sacked in the morning. Ten Hag won't be.

"You try to minimise it as much as possible," De Ligt says of the criticism in the week of the home humbling by Liverpool. "Obviously you hear the things, not everything, you try to minimise that also. But you have to stay strong, you have to be yourself and I think today we did.

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"I think if we win 3-0 you can say [the international break] did us well. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not so good but this time it helped, so it’s nice.

"It was a really important victory. Obviously today after all the stuff that was said about the club and the team after Liverpool we wanted to have a great response and today we did."

United's morale-lifting 3-0 win at Southampton was also a personal fillip for De Ligt after a chastening week away with the Netherlands national side. He described his performance in the Nations League win over Bosnia and Herzegovina as "f****d" and De Ligt was hooked at half-time in the draw with Germany.

Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman insisted he was