There has to be a reaction: Scott McTominay on Tottenham match

Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay has stated that the weekend game against Tottenham Hotspur “can’t come quickly enough.” McTominay and his teammates will be eager to bounce back from last weekend’s disappointment when they travel to North London. United suffered a demoralising 5-0 defeat against Liverpool in the Premier League last Sunday. On the back of that defeat, the Reds have had a rare free midweek. McTominay admitted that the defeat is still hurting everyone in the dressing room, but acknowledged that there is a need to show what the team is about out on the pitch.

“Yeah, obviously it goes without saying. I don’t think I need to say too much. There has to be a reaction,” Scott told club media. “It [the performance] is not good enough for the manager, most definitely, and that’s the hurtful thing for us players. It’s not good enough by any stretch of the imagination. We need to do more and that’s fine. It’s not easy speaking about what happened at the weekend. It’s a freak result which has come around. But, as I say, we need to go on and focus on pushing forwards. Try to forget about it and push on to the weekend.”

‘We’ve had a good couple of days’ training’

McTominay, who normally plays in one of the double pivots, gave an insight into the work being put in at Carrington this week. “We’ve had a good couple of days’ training, to be fair,” the Scotland international added. “As I say, it’s not easy. “We’ve got fighters in the dressing room, for sure, it’s easy to say it but we have to do it for the fans. They deserve better than that.

“They were absolutely different class for the last hour when we were down to 10 men and they were keeping the ball. It’s not easy to watch that, it was obviously so hurtful but stick with us. There is more to [us] than what you saw at the weekend.”

Last season, Solskjaer’s side impressively recovered from a half-time deficit in north London to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 in the Premier League. In what was one of the team’s most impressive showings in 2020/21 campaign, there was a sense of injustice when Edinson Cavani’s first-half goal was ruled out for a perceived foul by McTominay on Son Heung-min.

“Obviously, you can’t stop thinking about Liverpool but that’s the reaction that we need,” said Scott, when he was reminded of that encounter. “Something like that. A game like that. There are fighters in the team and leaders, we’ve got so much experience and we’re looking forward to it. It can’t come quickly enough.”

‘We need to sort things out on the pitch’

In this week, some players have spoken about the conversations they’ve had with each other following the defeat. Asked about how important they are, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replied, “Very. We’ve got to be, how do you say, in Norway we have an expression: ‘the distance to the ceiling has to be high’. 

“It has to be a room where we can say things openly without it coming back or coming out. We need to sort things out on the pitch, that’s what it’s about. Nothing is personal, because they all want to do their best and they back each other. They know they need each other, the players.”