Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock has suggested Manchester United's players should have stood up to Erik ten Hag - although that didn't go too well for one of his teammates at Anfield.

Ten Hag has been fired by United following a dismal start to the season. Sunday's 2-1 defeat at West Ham - their fourth loss in just nine league games so far - proved to be the final straw in what has been a poor spell in charge from the Dutchman.

The former Ajax boss was perhaps lucky to hold onto his job after leading United to its worst-ever finish in the Premier League last season, with an FA Cup win at Wembley seeing him earn a surprise new contract.

That new deal lasted just a few months, though, with Ten Hag paying the price for yet more poor performances after another summer that saw the Old Trafford club splash yet more cash on new signings.

Among the many criticisms leveled at Ten Hag during his time at United were suggestions that his training methods were too intense, something that he refuted earlier this year. Nevertheless, United struggled with injury problems during his reign, and Warnock has suggested the club's players could have made a stand.

"If you go to a manager to say 'we think you're just working us a little too hard, we can tweak a few things, that'll improve us as a team and that'll make things easier' - if that goes on deaf ears and he says 'don't question my authority' you'll lose the dressing room even more," Warnock said.

"When I was at Liverpool, Bolo Zenden went in to see the manager cos we hadn't had a day off in three months. You need a change of environment every now and again.

"He went in to say 'listen, can we just have a couple of days off to see the families?'. He didn't get in the squad for two months. It was a knock at Rafa's door and it was a disrespect thing, whereas it's actually trying to help the squad."

Having dismissed Ten Hag, United now look to be turning their attention to Sporting CP boss Ruben Amorim, who was heavily linked with succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool earlier this year. The Portuguese has also been touted as an heir to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, which could end up pushing Liverpool's rivals closer to Xabi Alonso.