• ‘You need players with personalities,’ says manager
• United trail leaders by 14 points before hosting Tottenham

Manchester United need players who will “fight for the badge”, according to Erik ten Hag, as they try to climb the table. Ten Hag’s side sit 14 points behind the leaders, Liverpool, after 20 matches and welcome fifth-placed Tottenham to Old Trafford on Sunday.

“If you want to perform you need hungry players,” Ten Hag said. “You need players with personalities and who are hungry to fight for the badge and fight for this club. And they need to do this in a team. It’s not about discipline. It’s about normal behaviour. That is what you can expect from a top professional.”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his lieutenants must address the club’s tale of bloated wages that can be traced across the last decade

Marcus Rashford, Casemiro, Jadon Sancho and Raphaël Varane would be the poster boys in any Sir Jim Ratcliffe white paper examining how Manchester United’s flatlining squad could be moved to a more modest or even performance-related pay structure.

In the elite football world of hyper-inflated salaries performance-related pay is a pipe-dream but imagine if the United footballer’s lucrative base rate salary was slashed and generous incentives predicated on, for instance, goal ratio and minutes played, were built in.

The Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has given a brief message to out-of-favour forward Jadon Sancho, following the England forward's move to Borussia Dortmund on loan. Sancho has been frozen out at Old Trafford after refusing to apologise to the Dutchman for effectively calling him a liar. Ten Hag said he hopes that Sancho is doing well and wished him well in Germany during his press conference on Friday. The Dortmund manager Edin Terzic was far more willing to discuss the player, who spent four seasons with the club, saying he wants to help Sancho 'feel joy' again.

• ‘Like coming home’: Jadon Sancho completes loan move to Dortmund

• Dortmund seal €4m deal to take Jadon Sancho on loan from Manchester United

• Winger has denied allegations of violence against women
• Ten Hag wishes Sancho good luck and declines to elaborate

Erik ten Hag has claimed off-field issues are to blame for Antony’s underwhelming form. The Manchester United winger has been accused of more than one act of violence against women, all of which he denies.

Antony is yet to score or make an assist in 21 appearances this season, the Brazilian’s form causing the manager to drop him on more than one occasion.

• Forward has not played for Manchester United since September
• Borussia Dortmund to pay part of salary on €4m loan fee

Jadon Sancho has said he is looking forward to play with “a smile on his face” after joining Borussia Dortmund on loan from Manchester United for the remainder of the season. The 23-year-old has been banished from the United first team since publicly hitting out at the manager, Erik ten Hag, after not being included in the squad for the loss at Arsenal in September.

The Bundesliga club are set to pay a loan fee of €4m (£3.4m) and part of Sancho’s salary. The winger, who spent four seasons with Dortmund from 2017 before joining United, said: “When I walked into the changing room today, it felt like coming home. I know the club inside out, I’ve always been very close to the fans here and I’ve never lost contact with the people in charge.

• German club paying loan fee and covering part of winger’s wages
• Sancho due for medical before joining Ian Maatsen in signing

Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund have concluded a deal for Jadon Sancho to join the Bundesliga club on loan for the rest of the season. The package is worth €4m (£3.4m) to United in terms of a loan fee and partial coverage of the winger’s salary.

Sancho will take a medical before signing for Dortmund, who do not have an option to buy him. Sancho thrived at Dortmund from 2017-2021, prompting United to pay an initial £73m for him, but his time at Old Trafford has turned sour and he has not played for more than four months.

Teenage midfielder’s seamless transition despite team’s troubles offers hope with cool head in FA Cup win at Wigan

Erik ten Hag warned that playing for Manchester United is not for everyone – it is a poisoned chalice because of the added pressure. Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent have failed to cope over the past decade but their very own Kobbie Mainoo is embracing it.

It was Ten Hag’s first visit to a Football League club since arriving at United. There are more unwelcoming stadiums than the DW Stadium, although few could claim to be as cold. Often the issue that creates United’s inconsistency revolves around the mentality of the team, as they struggle to put a run of victories together. A trip to a mid-table third-tier team desperate to rattle a very fragile team was not the most enticing encounter for a side in constant transition. It was a night for cool heads, something the temperature aided.

Shaun Maloney wanted to pose Manchester United the dual question of whether they could out-fight and out-play his Wigan Athletic team. Unfortunately for the Wigan manager and boyhood United fan, the answer was a convincing yes as Erik ten Hag’s troubled team avoided a late third round upset to overcome the League One side at the DW Stadium.

Diogo Dalot and a Bruno Fernandes penalty secured United a fourth round tie away at either League Two Newport County or Eastleigh of the National League. The visitors dominated against Wigan, who were hoping for another FA Cup upset in front of their biggest home attendance in a decade but only really threatened one in the opening minutes. The gulf told, although United’s wastefulness in front of goal spared Wigan greater punishment.

• DW Stadium hosts third round tie; 8.15pm kick-off (UK time)
• Get in touch! Send Scott an email about the game

West Bromwich Albion v Brentford or Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Bournemouth v Swansea City

• A series of high-profile signings have failed to make an impact
• ‘If you have confidence in yourself, this is the best challenge’

Erik ten Hag believes Manchester United are the best club in the world to play for – but only if you have the confidence to cope with the pressure. Recent high-profile signings have been unable to live up to expectations but the manager does not feel that will deter potential targets.

Ten Hag was asked whether Donny van de Beek’s struggles would put off players as he prepared for Monday’s game at Wigan in the FA Cup, which provides United’s only realistic hope of a trophy this season after exiting the Carabao Cup and Champions League.

• Midfielder has struggled for first-team minutes at Old Trafford
• United close to agreement with Dortmund over Sancho loan

The Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri is expected to join either Sevilla or Everton on loan this month.

The Tunisian has been a regular in match-day squads this season but has struggled for minutes on the pitch and is eager to get further experience of first-team football.

Boyhood United fan has scored an upset over the club once before and is plotting to do so again in a fascinating FA Cup tie

To gauge Shaun Maloney’s popularity at Wigan, look no further than the patrons of the Phoenix Lounge at the DW Stadium on Friday who spotted the manager conducting a TV interview at pitchside, stepped outside and sang his name throughout. They were attending a wake at the time.

A release from the sorrow: the mourners in the Phoenix and Wigan can identify with that. A club that almost went out of business last summer and started the League One season on minus eight points have hope again. Saved from a winding-up order when taken over in June by the local billionaire Mike Danson, the Wigan Warriors’ owner, Wigan are now above the relegation zone and rebuilding with a promising young team under Maloney.

In the seasonal flurry, the process is over-prioritised and as the Liverpool manager points out, players’ emotions count more

In March 2019, Manchester United went to Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League trailing 2-0 from the first leg. By half-time, they led 2-1. Needing another goal to go through on away goals, their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, pulled a counterintuitive masterstroke: he sat back. For half an hour, almost nothing happened. PSG pushed tentatively, first baffled and then anxious. And then Solskjær unleashed his assault on panicking opponents, United won a penalty – a silly, modern, European handball, but a penalty nonetheless – and went through.

That was Solskjær at his zenith, the result that prompted Gary Neville to ask where he wanted his statue. Solskjær’s record at that point read P17 W14 D2 L1; he was still soaring on the euphoria of not being José Mourinho. His struggles to implement attacking structures had not yet been exposed. But where he had proved himself adept was in reading and manipulating the emotional flow of a game.

Most failures have a pattern but, as the winger nears a return to Dortmund, this feels like a fault in the way things should work

Never go back. Don’t do it. Never, ever, ever go back. On the other hand, well, you could just go back. Particularly when the business of going away is panning out quite as badly as this. Here’s a good new way to mark the chill passing of time as the lights come on at four and the rain drills against your window.

It is now two and half years since Jadon Sancho moved to Manchester United. United have had three managers in that time. Sancho has earned £40m. And yet he still barely seems to have pulled on the shirt, or got past his moody online announcement clip. This timeline has simply stalled. Wait. Can we restart this thing?