“Take responsibility…” Erik ten Hag makes damning admission after Manchester United defeat

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has admitted that Monday night’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace was his fault. With the Dutchman adding that injuries or not, his team needs to do better.

Five of Ten Hag’s most used outfielders were absent against Palace, with names such as Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire all missing the game.

United’s defence, in particular, was devoid of any top-quality options, with an out-of-position Casemiro lining up with Jonny Evans.

Read More: Crystal Palace defender’s comments on 4-0 win vs Man United are embarrassing for Erik ten Hag

The latter of that pair even failed a fitness test ahead of the match and at 36 years of age was still used by Ten Hag after the Dutchman asked him to attempt to play the match.

Even with their injuries, Ten Hag’s side conceded three or more goals in a match for the fourteenth time this season, with United easily beaten once again.

Discussing the defeat after the game, Ten Hag was defiant in stating his fight and belief but admitted that he needed to get a better performance out of his side.

“I will keep fighting,” A clearly passionate Ten Hag told Sky Sports. “I prepared the team in the best way I could do and it was not good enough, by far not good enough.

“I have to take the responsibility for that, but I will find the energy and I will prepare them for Sunday’s game.”

Despite Erik’s admission that the damaging defeat to Crystal Palace was his fault, the Dutchman is once again dealing with a massively depleted squad.

This is something Erik himself acknowledged, with his squad dealing with over sixty cases of injury this season.

“All season, we’ve had a huge problem [with injury],” Erik stated. “By now, this is our fourth defeat in this calendar year, that is not a lot. And, every time, we’ve had huge problems [with injury], and many times we sorted it out, today we didn’t.

Rounding off his interview, Ten Hag told Sky’s reporter that he is still “absolutely” the right man to manage Manchester United before noting: “If the right players are there. So, avaliable. Then we have a good squad. But, we missed almost the whole backline and then we have problems.”

Manchester United currently sits in 8th place with a negative goal difference, having played 35 out of 38 Premier League games. This puts United on track for their first negative goal difference finish since 1990.