Man United did not follow the plan in Palace drubbing- Ten Hag 

Eric Ten Harm affirmed to keep fighting as Man United head coach, but said his players did not stick to the “plan and script” in their 4-0 loss to Crystal Palace on Monday. 

It was United’s 13th Premier League loss this season, their worst ever in the league since their return. The defeat meant United remained at eighth, out of the qualification spots for Europe, and the hair-raising manner of the loss only mounted the pressure on Ten Hag, who called this defeat the lowest point of the season. 

United were without the services of new absentees Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire for this clash, compelling them to go with makeshift centre-back pair of Casemior and Johnny Evans. And the hosts ripped them apart, with Micheal Olisse scoring a brace, a goal in either half, Jean Phillippe firing home a splendid effort and Tyrick Mitchell also getting his name on the scoresheet. 

When asked on Sky Sports post match if he was the right man for the job, Ten Hag replied: "Absolutely. The right players are there. We have a good squad."

He further added: "I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, it was by far not good enough. I have to take the responsibility for that. But I will find energy and I will prepare them for Sunday's game."

But the former Ajax manager did admit this loss was a hard one to swallow. When asked if this defeat was the lowest point of the season thus far, he responded: "Yes. It was very poor how we give the goals away, especially when we prepare the team and the conceding of the first goal is very disappointing. How easy and the easy giveaways.

"That shouldn't happen and certainly not in the circumstances we are in because we have problems but then we have to help each other out."

They had no other choice but to go with a makeshift defence, with Ten Hag stating Evans “wasn’t ready for the game” as he returned from injury. But he was left disappointed by the way United lost the game, getting comprehensively outplayed on all fronts. 

"It is very disappointing. Under-performing. Definitely the worst defeat," Ten Hag said. "We should have done better. We are aware as a team performance, we were not correct, making big mistakes and not following the plan and the script. And the rules we have. Of course also individual mistakes, but then we should cover each other which we didn't do. We let each other down and then you get a worst defeat."

He said: "This was the fourth defeat in 2024, so far, you have always seen a team that was following a script, we had a lot of wins and hard to beat, and today we weren't hard to beat. Yes I am sure they had the right intention, they were eager from the start, but once we were playing we didn't perform, individuals didn't perform and as a team, we didn't perform."

Ten Hag also said he wished his players had shown the same passion as the travelling fans 

The fans were magnificent," he said. "They were behind the team -- they see the problems we have and I am happy with their support and we should've had taken their fighting spirit into the pitch."

For the Eagles, this win continues their excellent run under Oliver Glasner, with the team winning their last four of the five top-flight fixtures. 

“Congrats to the team for this win and for the 4-0 at home to Man United," Glasner said on Sky Sports. "I think the first half, we didn't really play well as we could, so it was not that consistent. The defence opened the middle too often and they could find the pockets and we had a little bit of problems, but we were very efficient, so we scored a very nice goals.

"Then, at half-time, we made two or adaptions and the players listened again and in the second half, we were much better and were in much more control of the game. We created a lot of chances, we scored nice goals, but we were a little bit more consistent in our basics and so, it's a great win and congrats to the team."