Monday's embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Selhurst Park left the team languishing in eighth place in the Premier League and increasingly unlikely to qualify for Europe next season. The bare statistics make grim reading for United fans and show how far the 20-time English champions have fallen since they dominated under Alex Ferguson more than a decade ago.
The team have now lost 13 games for the first time in the Premier League era and have conceded 81 goals in all competitions - the highest number in a single campaign since 1976/77.
United have only failed once to qualify for European competition since the 1989/90 season but with Newcastle and Chelsea finding form in the league, they may have to beat Manchester City at Wembley later to find a route to continental football.
The embattled Ten Hag is adamant he "absolutely" remains the right man to restore the club's fortunes as new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe steps up his revamp of the club's leadership structure off the pitch.
"If the right players are there, available, we have a good squad, but we miss almost the whole back line and then we have problems," he told 'Sky Sports' after the defeat at Palace. "It is very disappointing. Under-performing. Definitely the worst defeat. We should have done better.
"We are aware, as a team performance, we were not correct, making big mistakes and not following the plan and the script and the rules we have."
But former Manchester United and England striker Michael Owen believes Ten Hag is out of time and that the club need to pull the trigger now, even before the FA Cup final at Wembley on May 25.
"I just wonder, with so much at stake, even though it's only for four games, I wonder whether the board might just have to try to do something here and
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