Man Utd disagreed with Erik ten Hag after ignored instructions in 'worst defeat'

Erik ten Hag claimed he was the right man for Manchester United after they were hammered by Crystal Palace back in May.

Those who make the decisions at Old Trafford took their time, but clearly didn't agree.

The 4-0 loss at Selhurst Park towards the latter end of last season was arguably the defeat that defined the Ten Hag era. Among his many reverses, few felt as low as when they were torn apart on a Monday night in south London. United were already threatening to rewrite the record books for all the wrong reasons. Ten Hag was on the cusp of eclipsing David Moyes 2013/14 team as the worst Red Devils outfit of the Premier League era and this defeat further plunged them towards that reality.

Ten Hag had continued to bemoan the team's injury crisis, which meant they had to play Casemiro as a makeshift centre-half and he was powerless to stop the Eagles, who were enjoying some excellent end of the season form, ripping them apart.

Michael Olise opened the scoring for the hosts with Ten Hag admitting the goal came about because the player failed to implement his plan and he confessed the team had hit a new low across the campaign.

He said: "It's a goal that shouldn't happen because we really give clear instructions how we should defend this. They didn't bring it on the pitch. We got hammered. "It is very disappointing. Under-performing. Definitely the worst defeat. 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."

The hosts were two-goal ahead by the interval and Tyrick Mitchell made it 3-0 just before the hour mark. Eight minutes later Olise had his second as the Eagles really began to stick the knife into the heart of the Red Devils.

Image: REX/Shutterstock) REX/Shutterstock)

It all led to some scathing verdicts. Jamie Carragher produced his famous "leave the football, before the football leaves you" line when assessing Casemiro's performance. He then claimed, under Ten Hag, they were "one of the most poorly coached teams in the Premier League".

Ten Hag had continued to point to his list of absentees throughout the season and claimed that was a reason for the reverse. His sugarcoating only went so far though as he acknowledged his United side were well off the levels required.

"It's clear, it's obvious, this is underperforming," he said. We didn't act how we wanted to and it's not good enough. We are very disappointed. Our fans were behind us and we should have kept fighting like the fans did. There are always reasons, everyone sees our backline - we have huge problems. At the end of the day, we have to deal with it."

He was defiant when asked if he was the right person for the job: "Absolutely. If the right players are available, we have a good squad"

A squad so good that it required 180 million pounds worth of surgery in the summer with two new centre-halves signed in the form of Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro. Manuel Ugarte was added to toughen up the midfield and yet the same problems continued to occur.

On their next visit to Selhurst Park in September United managed to secure a 0-0 draw, albeit it did little to lift the dire situation in Manchester and just five weeks later Ten Hag was out of a job. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co pulled the trigger on a man who had continued to maintain he would get it right once all the pieces were together.

Ruben Amorim is finding that this Manchester puzzle really doesn't seem to fit with United's fortunes perhaps declining further after Ten Hag's sacking.

Now they will face Palace for the first time since the Dutchman was shown the door with the Eagles proving to have Ten Hag's number after losing just one of their five matches against his United side.

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