Erik ten Hag turned up to Manchester United training unusually early on Monday morning as he battles to keep his job at Old Trafford.
The Dutchman is under serious amounts of pressure following Sunday's 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, leaving his side 12th in the table with just two wins from six games all season - Man United's joint-worst ever start to a league campaign.
Ten Hag is now facing a decisive week as the Red Devils prepare to take on Porto and Aston Villa in the space of four days, where a single defeat is increasingly likely to spell the end of his Old Trafford career.
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United's players are expected to train as normal this week before flying to Portugal on Wednesday ahead of their Europa League tie with Porto on Thursday, and the players reported for duty earlier than usual on Monday morning as Ten Hag gets to work on resolving the issues in his squad.
But the 54-year-old also made a surprise early-morning Carrington arrival today, pictured driving into the training complex unusually early to spark rumors of his immediate sacking. However, the former Ajax boss remains in charge and is expected to do so at least until the international break.
Instead, it's thought Ten Hag turned up extra early because his players were also due to do the same. According to Mirror Football, the stars usually arrive at approximately 10am on warm-down days, but arrived an hour in advance.
And that would make perfect sense given the manner of the defeat against Tottenham, coupled with the fact Ten Hag has already demanded his players to forget about the game and put it behind them ahead of a demanding week against tough opposition.
Speaking in his post-match press conference on Sunday, the Dutchman said: "Of course, there’s always a new game, there will be a new day, and it’s also obvious.
"You have to learn as a team - it can’t happen in four days now, twice, [that] the defender of the opponent can dribble through the whole park without being stopped. Then things are impossible at top football, you can’t make such mistakes, so definitely, we have to address this. But we will bounce back."
Gary Neville even encouraged United's players to get together and hold an emergency team meeting to address the current issues in the side, having seen the club win just three of its nine games in all competitions so far this season.
"I'd be suggesting the players probably go and have a meeting themselves tomorrow morning without the manager," Neville said on Sky Sports. "They've got to decide first what they want to do.
"Erik ten Hag has got a lot of friends in that dressing room that have worked with him previously at other clubs. They need to get a grip of that dressing room very quickly because it didn't look that great out there in that first half today."
