McTominay's message to supporters

Consecutive 3-0 home defeats to Manchester City and Newcastle United have been damaging to Erik ten Hag's men, in terms of the Premier League position and, of course, releasing our grip on the Carabao Cup that we won in the manager's first season in charge.

Furthermore, as acknowledged by the boss after the game, the performance levels are well below that required, and demanded, at United and this is not something lost on McTominay, who was an unused substitute against the Magpies.

Clearly hurting, as the fans are at the moment, the Scotland international realises the squad must block out the external pressure and get back to winning matches, starting with Saturday's lunchtime kick-off at Fulham.

Speaking to club media at Carrington on Thursday, he articulated how the Reds can turn things around.

"We have to win," he said about the upcoming trips to Fulham and FC Copenhagen. "That’s always the thought process. Obviously, my thoughts are with the fans at the minute because we’re not playing well and it’s difficult for them – they pay their hard-earned money every week to come and watch us and the least we can do is play well and win football matches.

"It’s not quite happening at the moment, sometimes that’s football.

"I feel like, for us in that dressing room, we have to stay tight and keep a clear head, and we can’t get too emotional with everything that surrounds us. We’ve got to block it all out."

McTominay insists the Reds will scrap for the points in the capital, and the key Champions League trip to Denmark, and bid to give the travelling fans something to cheer after a difficult start to the campaign.

"You saw last night it was a difficult game in every aspect, in terms of the result," he said. "But the fans are always there and are always behind us. I feel like the players feel that whenever we go back inside the dressing room – the anger is towards ourselves and also the anger is towards not pleasing the fans and giving them what they want.

"I can assure the fans that’s probably the most important thing in the players’ heads, we want to do it for the people who travel home and away and watch every single game and support us.

"Forget about all the people who don’t care about us and write stupid things in the media and try to divide us and all the other things. That’s not important to us at the moment. Everyone has to come together and, when the next game comes, we have to fight like dogs, that’s the way it’s got to be."

The midfielder has no doubts things will begin to turn in our favour soon, with another international break looming later in the month.

"Everyone knows that we’re not in our best period at the minute," he conceded. "We have to stick together, that’s the most important thing. We have another game coming up and potentially, in a week’s time, the picture could be a little bit different – win in the Champions League and wins in the league.

"Obviously, the fans will hear the generic response of ‘we’ve got to stick together’ but it’s true. Everyone wants this football club to succeed and we have to pull together and try to be as good with each other as possible, in the dressing room, to get those results going our way.

"I feel like we’ve got more than enough talent in the changing room to do that and whenever you look at the boys who are playing, but obviously something isn’t quite clicking. That’s up to the manager and the players to fix that and I’m 100 per cent confident that we will.

"Of course, there’s more that goes into it when you’re not playing well and you’re not doing so well," he added, on the work continuing behind the scenes. "I know the fans don’t want to hear that, they want to see results and performances and I think they want to see the players smiling and happy. It’s not quite happening at the moment, but I’m 100 per cent sure that the manager can put that into practice and it can come off. I’m sure of that.

"I’m repeating myself quite a bit, but that’s the main thing in football - there is always another game when you can put it right. We could go and play well at Fulham, win in Copenhagen and you’ve got another game after. So things can change quickly.

"That’s the way it is as a football player. If we can have three wins going into the international break then we can come back and begin to kick on from there."