Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard has stated that the Red Devils’ struggles this season are mainly due to complacency against mid-table Premier League teams.
The Red Devils have beaten big guns in the form of Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Leicester City, and drawn with Premier League leaders Liverpool as well as Arsenal this term, however, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men are still languishing in the eighth position on the table.
The fallen giants have flourished with their pace on the counter-attack but have come unstuck against teams that choose to defend deep having been beaten by Crystal Palace, West Ham, Newcastle United, Bournemouth and most recently bottom of the table club Watford.
The red half of Manchester has also been held by draws against Wolves, Southampton, Sheffield United, Aston Villa and Everton, which has Lingard to question the club’s mindset ahead of the Boxing Day clash against Newcastle United.
While speaking to reporters ahead of Newcastle’s visit to Old Trafford, the 27-year-old Englishman admitted that United are probably being too complacent into thinking that they have already won the game, “It’s strange, maybe it’s a mindset thing. Maybe it’s our mentality going into the match thinking we’ve already won the game. If we keep the consistency and mentality we had against City and Tottenham, I don’t see why we can’t win every game.
Lingard further added that it is difficult to keep that consistency throughout the season and hopes to change the mentality of heading into those games, “It seems like our mentality changes. To keep that consistency throughout the rest of the season when we come against the mid-table teams, we need to have the same mentality that we did going into the City and Tottenham game. When we start with energy and on the front foot, we’ll cause team problems all day long.”
