Christian Eriksen is calling for Manchester United to find better consistency as they navigate through an “up and down” start to the season. The team, managed by Erik ten Hag, will face FC Copenhagen on Wednesday, a team they narrowly defeated two weeks ago to secure their first Champions League points after consecutive losses.
A victory in the return fixture could potentially propel United into the automatic qualification places in their group, depending on the outcome of the match between Bayern Munich and Galatasaray. However, United has only managed to win consecutive games twice this season, and Eriksen is eager to see an improvement in this area, especially after their crucial win against Fulham on Saturday.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Eriksen acknowledged the team’s fluctuating atmosphere after their late triumph at Fulham. He stated, “It’s been like this this season. Every time we’ve won we’ve been on a high and then we lose again and we feel down again, and then up again. Obviously, we do everything we can to keep it on a high, keep winning games and then obviously that boosts our confidence and we need to keep that, instead of going up and down all the time.”
As the team prepares to face Copenhagen in Eriksen’s home country, he was asked about how he handles emotions during turbulent periods. He responded, “It is what it is, that’s football. You get judged on every game and there is one in every three or four days. Results are sometimes something you can have influence on and some games you can’t, so it’s different to be in it. In the end, you are a footballer, so literally what you do is play football. You do what you can to get the win.”
United had a challenging start to their Champions League campaign, losing a thrilling seven-goal encounter against Bayern Munich before suffering a defeat at Old Trafford to Galatasaray. Eriksen admitted, “We didn’t start as we wanted. Ever since we’ve been trying to catch up, there are a lot of points to catch up on and [the game against Copenhagen] is no different. We had the first catch-up a couple of weeks ago and now we have to take this second step to get to the next round.”
In their previous encounter with Copenhagen, Harry Maguire scored the only goal of the game to secure United’s first European win of the season. However, Scott McTominay’s foul in the box during added time almost cost the Red Devils, with Andre Onana saving Jordan Larsson’s 97th-minute penalty to deny Copenhagen a point. Eriksen believes that United must be more clinical in front of goal to avoid a similar scenario in the upcoming match.
Looking ahead to Wednesday’s game, Eriksen stated, “We need to be clinical and keep them away from our goal. I think they press as well and have some good moments in home games. I think they’ll be flying out in the beginning with the crowd. We need to hold strong and try to do something at the other end. I’m looking forward to it, it’s special being back in Denmark and playing there will be special.”
Following the match against Copenhagen, United will travel to face Galatasaray in their penultimate group game before concluding the group stage against Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich at Old Trafford.