Ex-Man Utd coach reveals Ten Hag’s ‘delicate’ stars claimed injury to avoid criticism

Former Man Utd first-team coach Benni McCarthy has claimed that some Red Devils players claimed they had an injury to avoid getting criticised.

The Red Devils have struggled to reach the heights of the Sir Alex Ferguson era over the last decade with a number of managers attempting to get the club back to challenging for the Premier League title.

Erik ten Hag’s side struggled to an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League last term and sit in 14th position this season after winning just two of their first seven matches.

Old Trafford, aside from the odd cup win, has not been a happy place to play football for quite some time and now former first-team coach McCarthy insists some players used to claim injury in order to miss matches and avoid criticism from Man Utd fans and pundits.

McCarthy told SuperSport : “Times have changed, generations have changed. Back then, the coach would slap you hard. ‘Benni I need you, wake up’. I didn’t take it personally because maybe he was right.

“If you shout at a player now, he has a mental breakdown. It’s more delicate. There are lot of things now that you can’t do or say. You have to think of the mental aspect and how it will affect them. Is a player okay with his life and his family?

“That’s the reason he (Jose) never succeeded. I think he was too honest and too direct for players to accept that he only wanted the best because he knows your full potential. That’s what you have to do to be a world-beater.

“We accepted it because we knew. ‘Hey, this guy is going places and let me do what he wants because I’m going with him’. At United, they were (saying) ‘where am I going to go with him? I’m already at United. Boss, I’m injured. I don’t want to play because I don’t want to get criticised’.”

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It comes after McCarthy also claimed that the wife of Man Utd boss Ten Hag “must be on the verge of divorcing him ” because of his “non-stop” attitude to the job.

“I can imagine how frustrating it is for Erik because he’s probably one of the hardest-working managers I’ve come across,” McCarthy said.

“His attention to detail, that man goes to sleep at 3am, 4am in the morning. The analysts get it at all angles, even if he thinks of something at 2am.

“I’m sure his wife must be on the verge of divorcing him because that’s his life. It’s non-stop.

“He works tirelessly and when you put that much work in, you expect things to go well, but that’s why I’m saying there’s something [that’s not right].”