Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has vowed to ‘keep fighting’ despite his side staring down the barrel of a worst-ever Premier League finish after a 4-0 thumping by Crystal Palace.
A makeshift centre-half pairing of Casemiro and Jonny Evans was torn apart by Palace, with Casemiro suffering one of the worst performances of his stellar career.
United has now lost 13 games in the league this season, their most ever in the Premier League era, and their 81 goals conceded across all competitions – so far – is the worst since 1976-77.
They need to either finish in the top seven or beat Manchester City to secure qualification for European football next season, something that is looking increasingly unlikely given their dismal recent form. It would be just the second time since 1989/90 that United have failed to qualify for continental competition.
Little wonder Ten Hag’s hopes of remaining in charge next season increasingly appear untenable.
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United cop FOUR against Palace | 01:12
“It’s clear and it’s obvious this is underperforming,” said Ten Hag. “We didn’t act how we want to do it and this is by far not good enough.”
Asked if he’s the right man to take the side forward, he replied: “Absolutely.
“If we have the right players available we have a good squad but we miss almost the whole backline and then we have problems.
“I will keep fighting and I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far not good enough, so I have to take the responsibility for that but I will find the energy and I will prepare them for Sunday.”
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But Ten Hag was lashed by Liverpool great Jamie Carragher after the match, while even two Manchester United legends said the Dutchman must be sacked.
So far, Ten Hag has been spared due to British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe taking a minor ownership stake and control of the football department mid-season, leading to a sweeping review of the entire organisation with a view to long-term adjustments.
The raft of injuries facing the side has played a factor – as has the lack of elite coaches currently out of work.
But Michael Owen said the side will get “annihilated” by City in the FA Cup final and declared Ten Hag could be sacked immediately, adding he “simply cannot manage the team next season.”
“I’ve said it for a long time that Ten Hag is not the right man for this job, I’ve been saying it for ages and ages,” Owen told Premier League Productions after the game.
“He cannot, simply cannot, manage the team next season.
“I almost wonder now, they’ve got a cup final and they’ve got a few important games that could mean European football next year or not.
“At some point you’ve got to make a decision, they’re going to get absolutely hammered by Manchester City [in the FA Cup final], they’re going to get annihilated, in fact, Arsenal will smash them to bits at Old Trafford, Newcastle will probably beat them and I wouldn’t even fancy them going to Brighton either. They might not get anything out of the rest of the season, playing like that.
“I just wonder there’s just so much at stake, even if it’s only for four games, I wonder whether the board might just have to try to do something here and now and be quite radical about it.
“He cannot, simply cannot, manage this team next season. He’s not good enough. I’ve thought it for ages, and he’s just not good enough to manage Manchester United.”
His former United teammate Paul Scholes was similarly brutal, calling it the “final nail in the coffin”.
“That was tough to watch,” said the ex-United midfielder. “That could have been 7-0.”
“But tonight felt like the final nail in the coffin, really,” he added.
“There was a lack of know-how from the team, a lack of effort which is the big disappointing thing.
“It felt like the end. If it is the end, I’m not sure what’s out there at the minute.
“I’ve felt he might get another year and work for a club that has calmed down a little bit by the new owners but it just doesn’t feel like it now … I think the problems are there anyway, it’s quite plain to see it feels like borrowed time.
“Watching that performance tonight, sometimes you get those performances where you think, ‘this is the end’. That almost felt like it. I remember Ole Gunnar [Solskjaer] at Watford away. It felt very similar to me, it just fell at the end.
“But what do you do for the last four games? You’ve got a big cup final. You can’t see where a win is coming from. They can’t beat Burnley at home.”
The pair agreed that respected assistant coach Steve Maclaren should take charge of the final four games.
Owen added: “That team is absolutely clueless, right the way through it. There’s not one thing I think works in that team. I don’t rate anything about it … They’re going to get smashed out of the ball park by every team playing like that today.
“Manchester City are going to demoralise them at Wembley in front of millions of people, it’s just embarrassing how they’re playing, something’s got to change, I know it’s going to change in the summer but I think it’s got to change now.
“There’s European football next year, this is a trophy.”
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Meanwhile Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher slammed Ten Hag, saying even the club’s under-23 team would have performed better.
“This is one of the most poorly coached teams in the Premier League,” Carragher said on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
“That is a fact. That is not an opinion. That is a fact. The numbers tell you that when you see them bottom of the league defensively (in terms of shots conceded), lower than Sheffield United.
“I struggled to see how United would win tonight but I thought Palace would win one or two nil. No Manchester United team should be getting beaten 4-0 by Crystal Palace.
“Manchester United’s U23 team, if they are at Manchester United, have come through their academy, have been coached and taught to play, I would still not expect them to lose 4-0.
“I have never been a manager or a coach but I have been a player and I have been coached by top coaches and some of the things that I see are just wrong.”
United next face Arsenal before clashes with Newcastle and Brighton to conclude their league season, before Ten Hag’s last chance saloon arrives with the FA Cup final against City at the end of the month.