Manchester United are reeling from another late defeat. Winning away from home has been a problem for Erik ten Hag throughout his time at the club.
While the club recorded narrow wins away at Aston Villa and Wolves earlier in 2024, there is something about trips to London which do not agree with this Manchester United team.
This season we have had a 2-0 loss at Tottenham, a 3-1 loss at Arsenal, 2-0 at West Ham, and in the past week, a 1-1 draw at Brentford and now a 4-3 defeat to Chelsea.
This latest defeat was agonising. United led 3-2 deep into injury time, and blew it, somehow losing 4-3.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag under pressure
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is set to come under pressure after the nature of this late collapse.
Each individual goal was unfortunate, but the errors stemmed from a lack of control, and if you continually allow opposing teams to have touches inside your box and lots of shots, eventually you may pay a price. And that has happened late in the last two games.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was in attendance at Stamford Bridge for the late defeat, which came as a hammer blow to the team’s already slim Champions League qualification chances.
Speaking to ESPN FC, pundit Craig Burley believes Ten Hag’s days are increasingly numbered.
He said: “Erik ten Hag again, I don’t think there’s much debate that Ineos are just going to…
“Talk about the top four, even with a win at Stamford Bridge tonight I think was a forlorn expectation, that that was a pipe dream sort of stuff, they’re never getting anywhere near the top four and he [Erik ten Hag] won’t be near this Manchester United hot seat next year, I don’t think.”
Casemiro under fire
Former Chelsea midfielder Burley also aimed his ire at Manchester United midfielder Casemiro, who he believes has lost his ability to run.
He explained: “You’ve got to give them some credit, they’ve already lost a bunch of defenders, Evans comes on at 36, he has to go off, they are already playing with 10 men.
“And I mean that in the nicest possible way, off the ball, because Casemiro has gone. Gone, properly gone.
“He cannot move, you can walk through the middle of that park. He cannot get around the field and when he goes home, when they go home tonight, he’s got this big long contract.”
Casemiro was substituted in the 75th minute for Scott McTominay. He was suffering an injury prior to the international break, which saw him miss the Brazil games.
He has returned but he does not look 100 per cent. Sofyan Amrabat was an unused substitute for the third game in a row, and its possible he sees some action on Sunday against Liverpool.