Christian Eriksen agrees with Bruno Fernandes’ surprising explanation for Manchester United defeat

Christian Eriksen has blamed Manchester United’s derby failure on a “lack of belief” in the locker room.

Manchester City defeated Manchester United 6-3 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with Erling Haaland and Phil Foden each scoring a hat-trick to sentence Erik ten Hag’s team to humiliation.

Prior to the derby, United had taken 12 points from games against Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester, and Arsenal, but Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes discussed a lack of belief among the players after the loss to City.

After the game, Fernandes criticized the lack of belief and unity on the field, and Eriksen concurred. “It’s fairly simple: a loss of belief,” Eriksen explained to Match of the Day. “You can’t win games if you don’t believe on the field; that’s unacceptable.” We become disobedient to rules and you get hammered; this happened today.

“It came as a surprise to me.” We were not on the front foot, we were not courageous on the ball, and there were opportunities to play but we were not courageous enough. All credit to City, but it has nothing to do with them; our performance was poor.

“It was about our belief as individuals and as a team.” I sensed it from the first minute, and after halftime, we altered everything and our mentality. After halftime, we witnessed a new Manchester United, and we scored goals and created some more.

“We were braver on the ball, came into the opponent’s half, and scored three goals.” I can’t think of anything positive right now. We disappointed our fans and ourselves, and we are deeply disappointed.”