Erik ten Hag has only been in place at Manchester United for a matter of months, but already the Dutchman has had to deal with some major issues.
Ten Hag has steadied the ship in recent weeks after enduring a nightmare introduction to life in the Premier League with back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Brentford, but a thumping loss against Manchester City represented another major setback for the Old Trafford chief.
United managed to rebound valiantly with a 2-1 win at Everton on Sunday night, but their preparations in the build-up to the crunch match at Goodison Park were marred by reports of another X-rated training ground clash.
Lisandro Martinez and Scott McTominay were reportedly at the forefront of a heated debate, which saw 'passions boil over' in midweek, according to The Sun. It is claimed that the duo were two of the most vocal players during an inquest into last weekend's chastening defeat in the Manchester derby.
Things got heated when Ten Hag asked individual players to go over their own errors in the match, with one star believed to have told a teammate to 'concentrate on your own f****** game'.
But the fiery exchange did not overawe Ten Hag, who encouraged his beleaguered squad to let loose in a bid to get some of the club's deep-rooted issues out into the open.
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In fact, rather than being daunted by some of the highly-charged emotions at the club, Ten Hag has openly embraced the frustration in the Old Trafford dressing room since taking charge in a bid to use it to fuel further improvements on the pitch - an approach he had earlier hinted that he would be attempting to adopt following the club's drubbing at the hands of Manchester City.
"It's an open door - this performance was unacceptable," the United manager explained on MUTV last weekend. "As a team and as individuals, we will criticise each other [on Monday] and then we will learn the lessons and we have to do better, starting the next game."
And that approach paid dividends as they recovered from an early setback at Goodison Park to claim all three points - something that Ten Hag revealed his team had been working on in the wake of the Manchester derby.
He told BT Sport: "We were quickly 1-0 down but the reaction of the team is good. One of our aims is to deal better with setbacks and stay composed. First half [we were] pressing well and it was hard for Everton to come to come into the game, we didn't allow them, happy with that."
