No common sense in Ineos sacking me, says Ten Hag

Cole is withering of Martial’s contribution after another season in which the France striker has been absent for long periods through injury, and gone missing when he has played.

“I think everyone knows that,” Cole says when asked if Martial had been a let-down. “Yeah, I think for someone who has been here nine years and he has not got 100 goals … People will say, ‘ Oh, he’s had injuries or whatever’ … I don’t care. For someone to be at Manchester United for nine years and not get himself 100 goals in total, that tells me that something’s not right.”

Yorke believes there is little chance of playing attacking, winning football when the team lack a cohesive structure under Ten Hag, even if there is some sympathy for the injuries the team have suffered, particularly in defence.

“What you are seeing there is a rotation that is out of sync,” he explains. “When you play rotation in football and when you are winning games and it’s fluid, it looks great. But if you are not structurally organised …

“You have players who are running forward when they don’t need to run forward because they do not have a proper structure and discipline implemented.

“We played attacking football but we knew we could defend one v one, we had Jaap [Stam] and later the likes of Rio [ Ferdinand] and [ Nemanja] Vidic. When you are playing attacking football you must be able to defend one v one and we are not doing that at the moment, so it’s hard.

“But you need structure and players are not playing their position. We look really disconnected and you can’t do that at any level, let alone this level.”

The long and short of it is that Cole and Yorke are not convinced United are quite the same draw they once were for players.

When Sir Alex Ferguson came knocking on Newcastle’s and, later, Villa’s door asking for Cole and Yorke, the players did not have to think twice.

“I think that people are second guessing about whether they want to join United,” Yorke says. “It never used to be a club that you contemplated coming to. United is in for you? You don’t think about it. Now players are thinking, ‘I am not so sure’. And that’s not a good sign. Is it losing the X-factor? Maybe a little bit.”

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Erik ten Hag says there would be no “common sense” in sacking him as Manchester United manager, insisting he does not fear the same fate as Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford.

Although United have no intention of dismissing Ten Hag before the FA Cup final against Manchester City in a fortnight, the Dutchman is facing an uncertain future following a torrid second season at Old Trafford which has left the club eighth in the table.

Van Gaal was dismissed as United manager within 48 hours of winning the FA Cup against Crystal Palace in 2016 after a troubled second season when the club also crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage and failed to finish in the top four.

But Ten Hag, whose side risk missing out on European qualification entirely, does not believe he will go the same way as his countryman because Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos team recognise the extent of the injury crisis that has derailed the campaign.

“No. I think they have common sense,” Ten Hag said. “They see when you have 32 different back lines, when you lose eight centre backs, when they see we use 13 different partnerships at centre-half, when we don’t have a left full-back, when we have so many injuries.

“They know that will have a negative impact on results but still we are fighting and it’s a huge FA Cup final. We are very happy to be there, it can still be a highlight for this season. Of course we are not happy but we know the reasons why we are underperforming in the ranking now and that of course is the injuries.

“I am a realistic person, I see this when I analyse and no team will perform when you have so many injuries in key areas.”

United have not offered Ten Hag any public assurances over his future. Asked if it would help to end the uncertainty over his position, the manager said: “This question you have to make to the owners, not to me. I don’t care if they do or they don’t, I’m working on improving and developing my team, that is my job here.”

Meanwhile, Ten Hag has suffered more injury woe ahead of tomorrow’s game against Arsenal with Mason Mount ruled out after his injury- plagued campaign took another turn for the worse.

Defender Luke Shaw has also suffered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury and is now facing a race to return this season.

Injury list: Midfielder Mason Mount has been ruled out of the match against Arsenal tomorrow