After Manchester United won their third game in a row with the 3-2 victory over Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin revealed that the squad had held a meeting recently where they had come forward and admitted that recent results had been poor. They had also spoke about the need to come back to form and play for the shirt.
United were down in the dumps after a 2-1 loss to Sunderland in the league followed by another 2-1 loss in the first leg of the Europa League to Danish minnows FC Midtjylland. With United manager Louis van Gaal also under pressure with mounting speculation of Jose Mourinho taking over at Old Trafford in the summer, the Red Devils were badly in need of results.
Speaking to MUTV, the French midfielder said: “You have to show that [desire] week in and week out, but even more so when we have a lot of injuries and a lot of young players that are not known.
“Everyone wants to show that they deserve a place at Manchester United and everyone wants to fight for the badge.
“We had a big discussion a few weeks ago, saying the results weren’t what we expect, but also that it’s not only about us. It is about the whole town, about the whole football club. So we need to make sure we place Manchester United in the right place.”
United must exploit top four teams’ slip-ups: Schneiderlin
United managed to move to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a win over Shrewsbury Town and soon after they eventually beat Midtjylland 5-1 in the second leg at home before following it up with the win over Arsenal to move closer to the top four. They are now three points behind Manchester City but their derby rivals have a game in hand since they were involved in the League Cup final win on Sunday.
Schneiderlin himself has played particularly well, especially in the Europa League win and even Van Gaal was full of praise for the 26-year-old central midfielder.
“Nobody is talking about Morgan Schneiderlin,” the Dutch boss said after the win. “But Morgan Schneiderlin played his best match. By far, his best match.”
Even against Arsenal, the former Southampton star was one of the more experienced players after Van Gaal fielded a young lineup with a number of debutants starting the game or coming off the bench.
“Everyone knew when they saw the team sheet that we have a very young team,” Schneiderlin said. “So we knew that we had to be at our best and be very aggressive. There are a lot of points to take, but football is very quick so we now need to make sure that we win against Watford.
“We’ve seen this season all the teams above slip up and all the teams have some bad results. So it is up to us to exploit that.”
