Manchester United’s woes this season were laid bare again in their 4-0 Premier League hammering by Crystal Palace on Monday, but manager Erik Ten Hag believes he is the right man to fix a team that is limping to the end of the campaign.
United had several injury issues ahead of the game and were forced to play midfielder Casemiro at centre-back, where he was exposed on a number occasions as Palace’s mobile front three pulled their visitors apart.
It leaves United in eighth with three league games remaining and facing several unwanted records.
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.