Manchester United’s season is in danger of imploding on Erik ten Hag after back-to-back defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham in the space of three days.
The Red Devils rocked up at London Stadium with Alexis Mac Allister’s 99th minute penalty still reverberating around their lugholes, but they could do nothing to pull themselves from their losing stupor because of a horrendous mistake from David de Gea.
In truth, things could actually have been worse for United, who after a bright 27 minutes shrunk into their shell and looked a million miles away from being a side ready to compete in the Champions League.
The margin of victory for West Ham might have been greater had Victor Lindelof’s obvious handball been, well, obvious to the officials – somehow they turned a blind eye to the Swede’s offence and a VAR review was not even called for.
The worrying thing for Ten Hag is that United‘s intensity dropped off the face of the earth after going a goal behind. They looked leggy, they looked out of ideas and they were comprehensively outfought by West Ham, who simply wanted it more than they did.
That’s a criticism that has been levelled at United a number of times this season and is bound to be brought up again now that they’ve lost eight Premier League games on the road.
Here’s who 90min picked out as their best and worst performers overall, courtesy of a comprehensive and completely accurate set of match ratings.
Antony – 6/10
Antony’s first season in English football has divided opinion. He cost a boatload of money so you expect a boat load in return, right? Well, that’s possibly a fair assessment in some ways, but doesn’t really factor in the need to acclimatise to a completely different standard of league and the fact that United are very much a team in transition.
Sure, they’ve tasted Carabao Cup success already and are through to the FA Cup final, but there’s undoubtedly work to do.
Here, Antony could easily have had a couple of goals and was a real threat on the right side. He shaved the post with a fizzing effort before striking the base of it later in the first half, and generally looked like United’s most capable player.
The energy sapped out of his legs as United started to struggle but he can be pleased with his individual contribution.
Honourable mention
Marcus Rashford – 6/10
It wasn’t Marcus Rashford’s day in the…
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