Erik ten Hag criticises Manchester United players’ decision-making vs Crystal Palace

Man United have lost four of their opening seven Premier League matches and have been beaten more times at home in the league this season than last season.

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag lamented his decision-making in a second consecutive Premier League defeat at Old Trafford.

Crystal Palace claimed a third win in the last six matches for the Under-16s thanks to Joachim Andersen’s 25th-minute volley, condemning United to four defeats in their first seven league matches.

United have not lost this many games at this stage of the season since 1989 and their comeback with nine points from their opening seven games is their worst in four years.

Palace trailed United 3-0 in the League Cup four days earlier, but kept United at bay for 65 minutes after Andersen’s strike. United were booed throughout and Ten Hag had no problem with the fan reaction.

“Of course, that is the concern (that this could be the pattern for United’s season) and we have to be more consistent. So there is not a demand for Man United; the demand is that we get a row of wins and we have to do better than we do now.

“I can give you reasons (for the defeat) but you will explain it as an excuse and there are no excuses. We have to win.

“We lost now two games in a row in the Premier League, clear, but I won’t set that conclusion now. We have to do better, that is definitely the case, and we have to show it also in our body language that Old Trafford is a fortress and you can’t get anything here and the only way you can go away with is a loss. So we have to do better here.

“I think I can’t blame the players [with] ‘they didn’t run’. They gave everything. But in the final part in both boxes, we didn’t do well. We only conceded three chances and they were from set-plays, so that tells me we were in control.

“We were often in the right position in the final part but we didn’t make the right decisions on and off the ball and that is very disappointing.

“We have to be more clinical and more determined. We want to be more determined. If you want to score a goal, you have to show more willingness to get more impact to score a goal.

“It is not a matter of luck, you can’t explain it like this. It is the form of today from the team. I think we get into the right spot and then you have to make the right decisions to create more.

“But even I think we created many occasions in front of the goal and we have to net and we didn’t. We can only blame ourselves.”