These United players need to take a good look in the mirror, grow a pair and stop blaming everyone else

I DON’T get the passthe-buck culture at Manchester United. It’s an old cliche but look in the bloody mirror. There is a trend in the modern game to hear players disconnecting with the coach because they are unsure whether he will be manager come the summer. They blame his tactics, the coaching, the selection. As a player, when my team played badly it was OUR fault. It wasn’t the manager’s, it wasn’t the tactics, it wasn’t down to the coaches’ messages. It was down to us.

This United squad are getting away scot-free. They have been s***! You are representing Manchester United, don’t blame anyone else but yourself. It is immaterial who the manager is, you are the one pulling on the United shirt.

Who out of this lot truly deserves to be wearing that shirt?

We see Bruno Fernandes hinting he may go. That shows player power these days. It used to be that once you signed a contract, the club decided when you left. Now the players tell the clubs when they are leaving.

I’m on slightly dodgy ground as I pushed to leave Middlesbrough in 1978 but at least I was trying to join Liverpool, the European champions.

I don’t know where these guys think they should be. They must wake up every day thinking: ‘Am I dreaming? Or am I really a Manchester United player?’ And many of us are asking the same question about them.

They shouldn’t be concerned with uncertainty about the manager; take pride in yourself.

They are playing for a crowd that has known a lot of success and still they are not being booed off every week. Those fantastic supporters must be shaking their heads at what they are witnessing this season. If nothing else as a player, do your best for them. Don’t whinge about training or the manager and his tactics.

If you play for Manchester United, you will never have an easy game. It’s the same if you play for Manchester City or Liverpool or Arsenal. You are every other team’s cup final so they raise their game. You have to grow a pair and take responsibility.

This lot don’t seem to understand that they have to do the hard yards first.

It’s no use pointing fingers, shrugging shoulders and whispering to each other as they walk off the pitch at Selhurst Park like schoolkids covering their mouths in case someone lip reads what great information they have. Who cares? Maybe if they were proper players we would be more interested in what they had to say. After the way they went through the motions in the 4-0 defeat by Crystal Palace on Monday, United owe their supporters a performance.

The players are talking of having a determination to put in a better display against Arsenal tomorrow, that it could give them confidence building up to the FA Cup final.

To even be thinking about the FA Cup now is out of order. They should be giving everything for their final three league games. Only if they come off mentally and physically shattered can they be remotely satisfied. It’s not been good enough. Those supporters deserve better.

We have seen against Liverpool twice recently that United can get lucky so it’s possible they turn up against Arsenal tomorrow. But you would have to fancy Mikel Arteta’s side.

There are people drawing parallels between Arteta’s first two seasons and Erik ten Hag’s but there’s no comparison. Arsenal dropped off last year but have obviously learned a great deal from their experience. They know they need to win every game. You would not want to be playing them now.