Erik ten Hag promises to persevere after Man United’s dismal 4-0 loss at Crystal Palace… as the embattled coach emphasizes that his players ‘failed each other’

Erik ten Hag vowed to battle on as Manchester United manager despite admitting that he hit a low point in a troubled season at Crystal Palace on Monday night.

United suffered a club record 13th Premier League defeat as they were hammered 4-0 at Selhurst Park, and have now conceded 81 goals in all competitions – the most since 1977.

Ten Hag compared the lack of fight in his team to the spirit shown by their supporters as he branded the woeful performance ‘not good enough by far’.

‘It’s clear and obvious this is under-performing. We should have kept fighting like the fans did,’ said the United boss.

‘It was not correct, making big mistakes, not following the plan, the script and the rules we have. Of course, also individual mistakes, but then we should cover each other, and we didn’t do. We let each other down and you get the worst defeat.’

Ten Hag insisted that he remains the man to take United forward in the face of a crippling injury crisis. 

‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad.

‘I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players that are available.’

Asked if it was the low point of the season, he replied: ‘Yes, it was very poor. How we gave the goals away and especially, easy giveaways and it shouldn’t happen.’

Ten Hag insisted the players are still behind him, and refused to blame Casemiro who had a torrid night from the moment Michael Olise scored the first of his two goals.

‘You can’t put this on one player, it’s a team performance,’ he added. 

‘That’s a goal that shouldn’t happen. We gave really clear instructions to how we should defend this. They didn’t bring these on the pitch and we got hammered.’