Manchester United constantly feel like they are in turbulence; eyes transfixed on them, the noise blasted at full volume, with the scrutiny ceaseless.
Posting the worst Premier League start in the club’s history and being winless in five games across all competitions certainly provides a platform for the external world to scream ‘chaos.’
At Carrington, Jonny Evans paints a more serene picture of a team trying to hurdle the negativity, fix their flaws, and perform to their capabilities.
He credits Erik ten Hag for being able to withstand a storm of unrelenting speculation about his job security; a subject which dominated the international break.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News, the centre-back offers a window into the dressing room, the defensive changes United have made, and the messaging from the coaching staff during another testing spell…
‘The manager shows real strength’
Evans on Ten Hag: “He’s a very strong-minded man and you know, I admire him for that. You see that he’s very principled in the way he wants to work and the way he is as a person, and he very rarely changes.
“He shows a real sort of strength and who he believes that he is, and who he wants to be. And I admire him for that sort of strength and courage to continue. He’s always very positive and his message is always the same and very consistent. It’s important – I suppose ’cause that’s the job of the coaches is to create that environment and culture within the club that we still keep pushing and improve the results and obviously the league position.
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“You can take the positives from the defensive side of the game, we want to add more goals and I suppose from their perspective, always looking at the positive side; where can we improve not sort of letting outside noise sort of influence us.
“Ruud [van Nistelrooy] spoke the other day about the fact that it’s a game and getting back there to when you’re a kid playing football and going out and competing. I think that’s where everyone wants to get to that sort of new place where you’re not affected by outside noise, and you can just go out and perform to your best every week. And that’s what I suppose every footballer, every single weekend strives for, I think playing with enjoyment and a smile on your face.
“Obviously we’ve got expectations to win football matches and it’s always more enjoyable whenever you win.”
Building off the defence
Evans on the defence: “Defensively the manager has always tried to play a high-pressing game. He’s tried to put a little bit more emphasis on knowing when we are having to defend deeper, can we defend deeper? And then I suppose, we’re still working on that and I’m sure the manager’s quite pleased.
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“We’ve probably gone a little bit more zonal in our defending this season. So with the new coaches coming in – Ruud has been quite heavily influential and Rene [Hake] in terms of analysing the games and making sure that every sort of little detail is picked up on, and making sure we’re in the right position.
“So I feel like defensively we’ve improved and hopefully in order to win games you have to be good defensively. And on the flip side of that, then is more goals and adding that part to our game.”
Underperforming expected goals
Evans on goalscoring issue: “You’d hope that you score more goals and the results will get better.
“The defensive side of it has improved and it’s been good. So I think it’s something that the manager has addressed and after coming back in after the international break, something that we want to look at, and it’s not always just up to the forward players.
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“I think we’re getting into good positions. Our final ball needs to be better and once you get one or two goals and you start gaining that confidence in games, you can be a bit more patient around the opposition box and picking the right path and taking care.”
Asked if the issue is more psychological than physical, Evans said: “I don’t feel that. I don’t feel that there’s an issue within the squad.
“It’s an easy sort of thing to look at I suppose when results aren’t going our way – can they handle pressure? I don’t know. It’s not something that you can measure I suppose. But I don’t get that sort of feeling within the squad either.”
‘The dressing room is pushing’
Evans on the players wanting to turn things around: “You can see it, the way the lads train every day, the professionalism within the group and you get that sort of feeling in the games as well.
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“I’ve been around football a long time, I know when a dressing room’s pushing and we’re doing everything we can here to push to try and make sure that we’re competing at the top.
“Fans know football and they can see it when they watch a game. I hope that they’re getting that sense that everyone’s fighting and doing everything they can to win a game of football, because there’s no doubt if the supporters didn’t feel that, they’d let the players know.
“And the supporters at this football club have been nothing but supportive, even last week against Aston Villa. I think they could see the energy and determination that we’ve put into the match and they showed that afterwards.”
