Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes he can restore the club to greatness, but his injury-hit squad doesn’t look capable of average at the moment.
The Red Devils were clobbered 4-0 by Crystal Palace on Monday at Selhurst Park, listless at times and run ragged at others as Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, and Harry Maguire joined his long list of absences.
“It’s clear, it’s obvious — This is under-performing,” Ten Hag said on USA Network after the game. “We didn’t act how we want to do it. It’s not good enough and we’re very disappointed. But the fans were all the way behind us and we should’ve kept fighting like the fans did.”
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United’s players and staff walked over to the still-singing away end after the blowout loss and saluted the traveling fans for a while, and Ten Hag acknowledged that the club cannot expect that support to be ever-present if the performances stay this poor.
“There are always reasons,” Ten Hag said. “You see our back line. We have huge problems. But at the end of the day we have to deal with it and we should’ve done better.”
Ten Hag said he saw ‘very poor defending’ in the loss, but is ready to rally his men for the weekend as United fight to unseat current sixth-place Newcastle and seventh-place Chelsea for a European place next season.
Erik ten Hag speaks on his Manchester United future
So what’s next for Ten Hag at Old Trafford?
“I will keep fighting,” Ten Hag said. “I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far not good enough. I have to take the responsibility for that but I will find the energy and prepare them for Sunday.”
Ten Hag said the effort was not good enough even considering the injuries, but he was sure to point out that his back line was restricted. Casemiro was next to Jonny Evans with Diogo Dalot and Aaron Wan-Bissaka out wide, and Kobbie Mainoo played central mid with Mason Mount and Cristian Eriksen.
“Absolutely. If we have the right players available out there, we have a good squad. We missed almost the whole back line and we had problems.”
