Manchester United legends in the media are not helping the current players, says Christian Eriksen, who left Old Trafford over the summer.
The 33-year-old spent three seasons with the Red Devils, making 107 appearances in all competitions and scoring eight goals before leaving for Wolfsburg.
It was an underwhelming stint at the club from the classy midfield operator, not producing many moments that stand out in the memory, during a time which saw Manchester United struggle under Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim.
The Dane points out that media scrutiny on Manchester United is extremely intense, much more testing than most other clubs and it is an added challenge for the players to deal with.
The likes of Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes have become prominent voices on television and podcasts, and Eriksen says they have not helped a negative feeling around the club.
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‘You see how big the club is, how much people want to be involved with the club, even on the media attention,’ Eriksen told ESPN. ‘I think even now we speak about United here. It’s just the power of the club.
‘Obviously the more opinionated, the more feelings towards the club are negative, the tougher it is, because the fans follow their heroes on the TV and it doesn’t help the players at the club.
‘At the same time at United, as a footballer, there’s always someone who has an opinion on one or the other, but you’re just playing football. You try to focus on that bit, and I think United were good at that. The focus was on the game itself and not so much what people say.’
Eriksen also points out that expectations at Manchester United are sky high and even in a relatively poor time for the club, he picked up the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, a haul almost every other team would be pleased with.
‘Even being there, winning the FA Cup and the Carabao in the last two seasons is something that any other club would be proud of to have done,’ he said.
‘Then there is also the size and the image and the feeling at United — it’s like it’s not good enough. I think hopefully that will change.
‘Even the Carabao is a small thing, but at that moment it is a big thing.’
Eriksen came in for criticism from Keane last season when he admitted that he and his teammates failed to match the effort levels of their opponents in a 1-1 draw with FC Twente in the Europa League.
‘It’s disappointing,’ Eriksen said. ‘We wanted more in the end but it wasn’t good enough.
‘They looked like they wanted it more than us and that can’t be right. That was said in the dressing room.’
Seething on The Overlap with Sky Bet in October last year, Keane said: ‘The players came out after the match, it was Eriksen, again a really poor game, oh my goodness, and when players come out [and say], “I think they might have wanted it more than us”, I kind of gave up at that stage.
‘If that’s the noises coming out of the dressing room then no wonder the manager is in trouble, no wonder they’re not going to win football matches, that’s it.’
He added: ‘Eriksen’s an experienced international player, vastly experienced, so he’s back in the United team the last few weeks because the manager is saying he’s doing really well in training. Eriksen’s not going to close the gap on Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City, absolutely not.
‘So he’s coming out after the game, I’m looking at him, even if you feel that, and that has happened where you thought they wanted it more than you, you don’t bloody say it, you fool, do you?
‘Someone should get a grip of him and go, “what are you sending those messages out about us for?”. We go and say, “we had a disappointing result but we bounce back next week”.’
