‘We weren’t in it’ – Eriksen gives honest assessment as Manchester United slump to new low

Crystal Palace's French midfielder #07 Michael Olise (C) runs between Manchester United Northern Irish defender #35 Jonny Evans (L) and Manchester United's Danish midfielder #14 Christian Eriksen (R) during the English Premier League football match between Crystal Palace and Manchester United at Selhurst Park in south London on May 6, 2024. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /

Christian Eriksen gave an honest assessment of Manchester United’s performance following Monday night’s embarrassing 4-0 Premier League defeat to Crystal Palace.

The experienced Denmark international spoke after an embarrassing defeat which puts our hopes of qualifying for European competition in real jeopardy.

Eighth-placed United weren’t only beaten by Palace on the night. We were thrashed and their newly appointed manager Oliver Glasner still found flaws in their performance.

Eriksen conceded that United players will “take the blame” for the horror show in south London and admitted that no one in a white shirt performed at the level required. That was clear to see for anyone watching the game.

“A big disappointment,” 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. 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.”

Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise fired Crystal Palace into the lead following a poor attempt at a tackle from Casemiro, which drew criticism from former United defender Rio Ferdinand on social media in the aftermath.

The Eagles doubled their lead when Jean-Philippe Mateta made it 2-0, before Tyrick Mitchell made it three in the second half. Olise completed a brace with a stunning goal to round off the scoring at 4-0 as another Casemiro error led to a Palace goal.

United have recorded over 60 injuries and were without club captain Bruno Fernandes due to injury tonight. That isn’t an excuse but everyone knows how reliant we are on Fernandes to provide a spark in attack.

As a result of losing 4-0 to Palace, United have now lost 13 games in a Premier League season for the first time. The previous record of 12 had been set during the 2013/14 campaign under David Moyes which was equalled in 2021/22 when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then Ralf Rangnick were in the dugout.

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