Christian Eriksen: Players to blame for Man United’s pathetic Palace performance

Christian Eriksen says Manchester United’s players “take the blame” for the humiliating 4-0 hammering at Crystal Palace that has increased the pressure on manager Erik ten Hag.

The Dutchman’s difficult second season in the hot seat reached a new nadir on Monday night as the Eagles put the lifeless, injury-hit Red Devils to the sword.

Ten Hag’s team lacked direction and determination as Palace ran amok in a match that saw woeful United fall to a 13th league loss – their most defeats in a Premier League campaign.

However, the ex-Ajax boss remains “absolutely” convinced he is the right man for the job and vowed to fight on with three league games to go before the FA Cup final against Manchester City.

Quite whether Ineos agrees with Ten Hag remains to be seen, but there is no doubt United will add to their 18 defeats in all competitions if they perform anything like they did at Selhurst Park again.

“A big disappointment,” experienced midfielder Eriksen told BBC Sport. “We just had an off-day and we weren’t in it.

“It is what it is. We can’t really change the injury things. We have to do what we can on the pitch to change it.

“Today it didn’t matter who we played. Everyone could have done better.

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“I don’t know what the conclusion is for how it went. We weren’t good enough.

“We tried to do what we could, but we were not good enough. We’ll take the blame as players.”

The fact United were without 11 first-team players, including captain Bruno Fernandes, five centre-backs and both left-backs, offers some mitigation.

Yet there was still talent on display against Palace and an experienced core of players, like stand-in captain Casemiro,