Manchester United players are beginning to become ‘concerned’ of the running demands set by manager Erik ten Hag, according to a report.

The Red Devils have endured an underwhelming 2023/24 season so far, with rivals Manchester City inflicting their 16th defeat of the year across all competitions on Sunday.

Ten Hag won over the Old Trafford faithful with a fine debut 2022/23 season at the helm, winning the Carabao Cup and guiding United back into the Champions League when few gave them any hope of doing so heading into the campaign,

However, the Manchester Evening News report that a minority of players are questioning the ‘intensity’ of Ten Hag’s methods off the back of last season in which United played 62 matches with a World Cup sandwiched in between.

There have been 47 different injury and illness cases in United’s first team so far this term, with Bruno Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho and Diogo Dalot the only outfielders not to have spent time on the treatment table.

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Ten Hag has regularly bemoaned that United’s lack of progress this season has been due to inconsistency brought about by enforced changes to his lineups, pointing to this excuse after Sunday’s limp loss at the Etihad Stadium.

When asked if the match reflected the gap between City and United, Ten Hag replied: “I don’t think so, absolutely not. We have many problems with injuries. Not that big, especially when we have everyone on board. City are the best team in the world at this moment.”

Ten Hag then revealed he had to withdraw Marcus Rashford and Jonny Evans in the second half due to injury, adding: “They fought to be part of this game but after 60 or 70 minutes we had to take them off and sub them, Jonny was playing the backline brilliantly, and Rashy was a threat, not only goalscoring. I think he had three or four moments where he could’ve scored, and he scored the first one; he could’ve scored even more.”