The 'pattern' is just as likely to be the media's business model as anything else.
"Manchester United players are unhappy with training", is a nothing statement, impossible to prove or disprove but guaranteed to drive clicks, comment and debate as everyone speculates who might be the source, what the problem might be and whether it's actually the manager being useless or the players having a poor attitude or being disgruntled with their contract, squad role etc.
Sometimes we get what could theoretically be a solid source, such as the Metro which cites a source close to a player but doesn't give any clarification of whether the information was an opinion held by that player. Generally it's even vaguer, as with the Athletic article on Rangnick where we're relying on "sources familiar with Carrington", whatever that means. And then the LVG and Ole articles simply give us the classic "it is thought that", which narrows down the source to anyone who has both heard of Manchester United and is capable of thought.