An admission from Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner following his side’s dismantling of Manchester United has made an embarrassing defeat even worse.
Manchester United managed to hit a fresh nadir on Monday night as they were battered 4-0 by Crystal Palace in a result that actually flattered them.
It was another appalling display from Erik ten Hag’s side who had no semblance of structure either at the back or going forward.
The Eagles were two up and cruising at the break thanks to goals from Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta and they continued to benefit from terrible defining in the second half.
Tyrick Mitchell stabbed in a third before Olise rounded off the scoring with the pick of the bunch as he fired in from distance after a hapless Casemiro lost the ball.
Just when you think it couldn’t have got any worse, Palace boss Oliver Glasner has inadvertently embarrassed United further.
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Manchester United’s defeat to Crystal Palace now looks even worse
Speaking to Sky Sports after the victory, Glasner was surprisingly critical of his side and said they weren’t even good in the first half.
He said: “The first half we didn’t really play well. How we could.
“So it was not that consistent in defence, we open the middle too often and they could find the pockets and a little bit of problems.
“But we were very efficient so we scored very nice goals. At half time we made two or three adaptions and the players listened again.
“The second half was much better, we had much more control of the game.
“We created a lot of chances, we scored nice goals and we were a little bit more consistent on our basics and so it’s a great win and congrats to the team.”
If that first-half performance wasn’t Palace playing well then who knows what they could have done to United if they were.
From the first whistle to the last, Glasner’s side were dominant and restricted United to only creating chances from set pieces.
They may have been fortunate that a United goal was disallowed for the slightest of touches on the goalkeeper but the leveller would have been undeserved.
The fact that Glasner believes his side was not at its best and they still did that to United paints the already disastrous display in an even uglier light.
Manchester United may miss out on European football
Returning to the Champions League last season was an important achievement but a year later United might not even make the UEFA Conference League.
The defeat has seen them slip to eighth in the table behind Chelsea, who are enduring their own shambolic season yet have now overtaken them.
With United facing Arsenal, Newcastle and Brighton in their remaining league games, there’s a very real chance they don’t pick up another point and miss out on European football altogether.