GRAEME SOUNESS: Man United is a vipers’ nest of disrespect – they have always had trouble keeping their players grounded and need some real men back in the dressing room

Firstly, I can only apologise for talking about Manchester United‘s plight once again.

I feel sorry for the manager Ruben Amorim because I firmly believe he has walked into a vipers’ nest. And it will need everyone from the very, very top of the club and every supporter that walks through the gates at Old Trafford to believe in him for him to succeed.

He has talked this week of relegation and the club needing a shock, all against a backdrop of certain players going through the motions in training and disrespecting the manager. From timekeeping to attitude to every part of your training regime, like when you play in small-sided practice games, you try to replicate match days and play with intensity. It’s not like a switch you can flick on when it suits.

I spoke last week about the example Bruno Fernandes sets and I hear about Alejandro Garnacho being unhappy with the manager. Can someone remind me of just who he is? The last time I looked he was only a 20-year-old boy. One who is only one step up, on a ten-rung ladder. Who are you? He acts like a ‘wrong ‘un’ on the football pitch and, unless he changes, he’s got no chance of fulfilling what obvious potential he has.

Going back to my generation and before, Manchester United have always had a problem in keeping players grounded.

Then it was always about ‘who’s the next George Best, the next Denis Law or the next Bobby Charlton…’ There have been good players but whether it is the weight of the jersey, or the adulation they receive too early, it didn’t happen for them.

His side are on a rotten run of form and take on a Liverpool side seemingly destined for the title

Alejandro Garnacho may have to change his ways on the field if he is to reach his obvious potential

Premier League teams are forced into paying fortunes to kids because, if they don’t, someone else will. But you’re only ever investing in potential, and more often than not when you give a young man too much too soon they get in their armchair and never fulfil their potential.

I never get tired of underlining the value of having good senior professionals in your dressing room but there has been a drought of real men at Manchester United for over a decade now.

Generally, a coach can work with his group of 25 players four days a week and, on matchdays, they are occupied with the game. In a normal week, a manager might be in their company two hours a day, four days of that working week. How much individual attention can he possibly give them?

And that’s why you need good senior professionals to help. Digging others out when they’re not coming up to standards that are needed if you want to be winning trophies, and just affording time and advice to these young men, given the distractions in the modern game today.

They have an enormous part to play in getting the message across, exerting standards, so that come match day there has to be less finger pointing and more looking in the mirror.

Where are the senior figures here? Fernandes? Is that the best you can do?

United supporters will remember Sir Alex Ferguson calling Paul Scholes out of retirement at 37, and keeping Gary Neville around the place past his sell by date, simply because they were two fantastic types that would have trained every day like it was the last session they ever had. What an example to have for young players making their way in the game.

For too long, the current United players have accepted mediocrity. You can sense it’s a dressing room where individuals go ‘it’s not my fault’.

United’s squad has had a drought of real men for over a decade – who are the current senior professionals?

Sir Alex Ferguson brought players like Paul Scholes out of retirement for the example they showed to youngsters

Right now, it’s a very difficult watch to the 75,000 who turn up for their team every other week; when United concede a goal, they are just shrugging their shoulders, always looking for someone else to give them the answers. That is not the behaviour of big players. They need to show what they are made of – not go hiding like they are now.

Is football mirroring society where no one wants to take responsibility for their actions these days?

When I joined Liverpool, it was tough schooling. I was in a dressing room with characters like Emlyn Hughes and Tommy Smith, they’d never allow you to be sloppy in training. The coach Ronnie Moran was the greatest influence on my career but the only time he’d afford us a pat on the back was when we physically had some silverware in the dressing room.

We’d say on a regular basis ‘You’re only happy when you’re unhappy, Ronnie.’ And he would look at us, shake his head and say, ‘You should have seen the players we had in the past son.’ At that point you were always made to feel inferior to the players that had gone before, individually, and collectively. But I always viewed it as motivation to get better.

Apart from a few occasions under Ron Atkinson’s reign, I can’t remember United challenging us at the top, yet they were getting all the headlines week in, week out.

Too many United players get put on a pedestal too soon and start to believe what is written or said about them. But it’s not great reading now. They are our Bayern Munich, because in Germany, they are called FC Hollywood.

When many of this squad finish playing, they will look back and realise what a privilege it was playing for United and they will do that with regret – regret for why they didn’t make more of the opportunity when they had it.

They are selling the club short.

The likes of Emlyn Hughes (with trophy) gave the Liverpool dressing-room strong characters

Only injuries can stop Slot’s Reds 

The stars continue to align for Liverpool’s next league title but Arne Slot will be thinking of worst-case scenarios going forward.

Losing Virgil van Dijk or Mo Salah to big injuries would have the greatest impact. Or, if it was announced two of them plus Trent Alexander-Arnold were leaving at the end of the season, then that would deflate the mood in that dressing room

I wouldn’t worry about loss of form because Liverpool have so many goalscorers in their squad, it means they don’t have to play well to win football matches.

But we have seen the damage done to Manchester City by the loss of Rodri and also, in part, Kevin de Bruyne, relinquishing his throne as the best midfield player in the country. Indeed, I fear De Bruyne will never hit the levels of performance he achieved in the past again. It’s not all down to those two, but their absence has played a large part in why a lot of that City dressing room have stopped believing.

For Liverpool, despite all the good cover they have in the centre back position, Van Dijk has to play because he makes those around him look so good. And Salah has the best attacking statistics of any player in the Premier League right now so he would obviously be missed.

Personally, I wouldn’t criticise Alexander-Arnold should he leave for Real Madrid.

He is a Scouser, who has only ever known playing for Liverpool. He has done so with success, given great service. I understand why he would be tempted. He may want a new challenge and Real Madrid is the only club he could leave for. However, he will be leaving to play alongside less talented players at Real.

The stars are aligning for Arne Slot at Liverpool but he will have worst-case scenarios in his head moving forward

Trent Alexander-Arnold has known nothing but playing for Liverpool with his contract up in the summer

On current form, if the Champions League final was being played this month, I’d have to say Liverpool would have no-one to fear but, in football terms, May is still a long way off.

Football is the maddest of sports. On Sunday we will see Liverpool, free-scoring, full of beans, against a Manchester United, miserable and feeling sorry for themselves. I imagine Ruben Amorim will be telling his players there is no better way to kickstart their season than a win at Anfield. 

For Arne Slot, it will be ‘don’t expect anything other than the very best of Manchester United to turn up’. We may anticipate another Liverpool victory but this game never ceases to surprise.

Lopetegui is being shortchanged

I had expected Julen Lopetegui to do well at West Ham this season but, looking at them, I feel some of his players are shortchanging him.

The half-hearted defending from his players against a rampant Liverpool last Sunday was perhaps indicative of the attitudes he has to contend with. Having had one or two flare ups already, I suspect he is wrestling with how strong he can go at confronting or criticising those players without losing the dressing room altogether.

The main reason I quit at the age of 53, was that my personality didn’t lend itself to where football management was going. I found it difficult not to lose it with players who didn’t share my attitude to not losing a game.

That’s why it’s never been more important to have reliable senior professionals in your dressing room to act on your behalf and instil the importance of every single moment you come to work. The last thing Lopetegui needed was to lose his very best of those, Jarrod Bowen, to injury.

The defending against Liverpool was perhaps indicative of attitudes Julen Lopetegui is having to contend with at West Ham

Still too early for Chelsea 

Chelsea’s drop off in performances over recent weeks is only to be expected with the young squad they possess.

They were going so well that I bet it surprised even those at the top of the club. It’s not the physical challenge that they will be finding tough but the mental one of playing cup finals every week.

For his part, Enzo Maresca has persistently played down their prospects of challenging, echoed by Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer. That was always the message we were given at Liverpool, be humble, play it down when you talk to the press. But I know privately, behind that dressing room door, as a player you want your manager to tell you he believes in you and you can win this competition.

I believe it is too early for this Chelsea team but they will still be hoping the rest slip up.