I'm not sure if you know challenging it is for players if they are not winning matches despite putting effort in all you do. There is going to be pressure from the manager because he will think the players are at fault, the club will be on you guys head, the fans will be coming with different agitation and anger and the players reputations is also on the line because you will not be recognized for that season and that's not what any player dream of at the start of the season.
If everyone is seeing Erik as the failure but the team can't do anything about it then I think it's pointless for the fans and the players to be complain. If the team has not been bribe or something is going on their head, I'm very positive that by the end of this season, that guy will leave Manchester United, this is not even about if they will win or not but I'm sure they will definitely fire him and retract the contract so everyone can be happy.
The point is, there are no players who deliberately play just to lose or are desperate or pessimistic, they are professional players with big paychecks and also their careers and good names are certainly a big responsibility to remain good. Thus, it makes no sense when you say players are not motivated to win, because in every match there will always be a winning team and a losing team. If you think when the team loses andthe players are not motivated to win, I think that is a wrong assumption because it is difficult to be the best above the best. So, in the case of Manchester United basically it must have the right coach, of course, to be able to maximize the potential of every player in the squad, not just keep buying players but the results remain poor.