Manchester United produced a truly woeful performance at Selhurst Park to fall to a 4-0 defeat.
A makeshift defence of Casemiro and Jonny Evans was always asking for trouble against a mobile Crystal Palace attack.
The problem was that United’s injury crisis left Erik ten Hag with little option at the back. In midfield and attack, there was little to shout about either.
United managed only two shots on target all game, with the forward players barely troubling Palace aside from at set pieces.
Manchester United front three criticised
The 4-0 loss was an awful all around performance from Manchester United, and our player ratings reflect several terrible individual displays.
Former Manchester United academy prospect Danny Webber picked out the three front players for disappointing efforts.
He told MUTV that they needed to do far more to help out the midfielders when United did get possession of the ball and were trying to build attacks.
Webber said: “You’re looking at the lads when they get the ball in midfield. You need your front three to run.
“You need your front three to be brave and create. If you’re if you’re Rasmus, you’ve got to be creative and you’ve got to post up and you’ve got to give the centre-half problems.
“If you’re the two wide men in Garnacho and Antony you’ve got to be running in behind to stretch the play.
“It is giving very little space for for Mason Mount to play and Kobbie to play, and Christian Eriksen and it’s just really tight in there. And that suits Crystal Palace.”
United had more possession than Palace, with 58 per cent, and made more passes, 591 to Palace’s 430, but could not do anything with it.
The Red Devils failed to threaten Crystal Palace’s goal and this was a miserable night for all concerned.
United concede four at Palace
Manchester United conceded two goals in each half against Crystal Palace, while the Eagles almost had a fifth when they hit the woodwork late on.
Did it need to be that bad? Wes Brown told MUTV that he felt better goalkeeping from Andre Onana could have kept the score down.
He said: “I thought Onana maybe should have saved two.”