It is never a good sign for a manager when stories start to emerge that a player is ‘liking’ social media posts about how nasty he is, but that was the supplementary headache for Erik ten Hag after Manchester United’s sleepy showing in Bournemouth.
There is always the Joleon Lescott defence – he once claimed it was not him but his pocket that tweeted a picture of a £121,000 Mercedes while driving after Aston Villa were humiliated 6-0 by Liverpool – as Alejandro Garnacho faced accusations of a public response to Ten Hag substituting him at half-time during Saturday’s disappointing draw followed by his post-match explanation for that tweak.