Christian Eriksen admits Manchester United season ‘not fun’ and sets Premier League goal | OneFootball

Christian Eriksen has admitted it is “not fun” to see Manchester United languishing in 14th place in the Premier League and believes they are under huge pressure to win the Europa League.

United have not finished in the bottom half since 1990 or lower than 13th since relegation in 1974 and midfielder Eriksen is targeting a surge up the table.

Ruben Amorim’s side are eight points behind 10th-pace Fulham and Eriksen thinks it is vital they get into Europe next season, which he believes they still could do via the Premier League.

The other way would be to win the Europa League and they drew the first leg of their last-16 tie with Real Sociedad 1-1. They recorded the same score against Arsenal to move up from 15th but the table still makes for grim viewing for Eriksen.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “We want to be higher. We’re at United, so we have to be higher. But in the end the ball is still rolling on the pitch we so have to just focus on the football and look at the table when hopefully at the end of the season we end up higher and we’ll forget about this. But at the moment we have to fight for it.”

Eriksen did not try to downplay the importance of the second leg against Sociedad, adding: “It’s massive, we know the pressure, we know the situation we’re in in the league. To get into Europe next season we have to win a lot of games in the league or go through the Europa League so we know there’s a lot of pressure on that game, but it also comes with being at this club. You play for trophies so we have to play well to go through.

“It’s where they belong, but we don’t belong being in the lower half of the Premier League either so it’s a bit in between. We try to do our best to get up [the league], we’re not in a position we want to be in. It could save a little bit with the Champions League and the Europa League.”

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Eriksen defended his Denmark teammate Rasmus Hojlund after the striker’s goal drought reached 20 games following his cameo against Arsenal, when he missed two chances.

The midfielder insisted others have to chip in with more goals and believes Hojlund’s luck will turn.

He added: “There’s a lot of players on the pitch, me included, that should score some more goals, it’s not him. But he’s a striker, he lives for the goals and tries to score goals. He’s in these situations, now it’s about getting the belief of scoring, but he’s a hard-working guy who tries his best and wants his best for the team. At some point it will click and it will go the other way.”