Michael Olise scored a brace of goals as Crystal Palace completed a league double over Manchester United for the first time in their history with a thumping 4-0 victory at Selhurst Park on Monday that will add to the pressure on Erik ten Hag.
A makeshift United defence that included Casemiro at centre-back was easily picked apart by Palace on several occasions as Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell were also on the scoresheet in the impressive win.
United remain in eighth place with 54 points from 35 games, two points behind Newcastle United in sixth, with their hopes of European football next season fading fast. Palace are still in 14th with 43 points from 36
matches.
United had several injury absentees and were without Bruno Fernandes, the first time in his 230-game Old Trafford career he has missed a match with injury, but the ease with which they were beaten will be a huge concern for everyone at the club.
However, manager Erik Ten Hag believes he is the right man to fix a team that is limping to the end of the
campaign.
They currently have a club record number of losses (13) in a Premier League season and have already faced their most shots (618) in a single campaign.
If they let in three more goals this term they will set a new mark for their most conceded in a campaign.
“I will keep fighting, I have prepared the team in the best way I can,” Ten Hag told SkySports. “It (the performance) was not good enough and I have to take the responsibility for that.
“But I will find the energy and prepare them for the next game. We have nine points to play for and we have to fight for those.”
The manager refused to lay the blame on Casemiro alone for the poor defensive display.
“You can’t put it on one player, it is a team performance.
“We did not adapt to the different situations,” Ten Hag said. “It’s clear, we didn’t act how we want to, it’s not good enough.
“There are always reasons, everyone could see our backline today, where we had huge problems. But at the end of the day we have to deal with these issues and we should have done better.”
Manchester United’s next game is at home to league leaders Arsenal on Sunday.
