Man Utd players FUMED at Ten Hag over Antony 'favouritism'

Tom Weber

• Updated: 29 Oct 2024 22:27 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester United players were not happy with Erik ten Hag over his alleged 'favouritism,' according to a report.

The Dutchman is gone, sacked after an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to struggling West Ham on Sunday. Ten Hag had overseen Man Utd's worst start to a Premier League campaign and his departure felt inevitable.

Indeed, according to Ben Jacobs, even the players felt that the 54-year-old would be gone sooner rather than later. Man Utd's stars were well aware that the club hierarchy held talks with potential successors in the summer, which undermined Ten Hag's position.

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Jacobs insists that Ten Hag never fully lost the dressing room, but players nevertheless had their grievances with the manager, with his supposed favouritism a big problem, it is claimed.

Ten Hag preferred some players over others and this did not go down with the rest of the squad.

Ten Hag preferred Antony over Amad

One of the most glaring examples of this was Ten Hag's insistence on playing Antony even during his dismal spell of form last season. It took the Brazilian until the winter to score his first goal but his former Ajax boss, who had insisted on his signing, kept the faith.

Jacobs reports that even the players believed that Ten Hag was wrong for sticking with the much-maligned winger over other options such as Amad Diallo.

The youngster had a difficult start to the campaign due to suffering a long-term injury in pre-season, but even when he was back fit, Diallo mostly featured as a substitute even when Antony failed to perform.

READ MORE: How Ten Hag almost QUIT Man Utd

This season, the Brazilian has been reduced to nothing more than a substitute role, while Diallo featured regularly, but Ten Hag still managed to ruffle feathers recently.

Against Fenerbahce last week, he bizarrely decided to play full-back Noussair Mazraoui as a No.10 over Amad and then decided to bring on Antony over the Ivorian.

A visibly annoyed Amad did eventually get on the pitch when Antony had to come off again injured, but he could not affect the outcome of the game with the handful of minutes he was given.