Erik ten Hag has urged his Manchester United players to take responsibility for their mistakes after succumbing to a gut-wrenching defeat at Stamford Bridge.
United were 3-2 up and on the way to a much-needed win on Thursday night, only to allow Cole Palmer to score twice in injury time to secure victory for Chelsea. The defeat was all the more painful considering United had shown character to come from 2-0 down and conceded two penalties.
Conor Gallagher put Chelsea ahead before Palmer’s first penalty of the night for Antony’s foul on Marc Cucurella. United fought back, with Alejandro Garnacho seizing on a mistake from Moises Caicedo, Bruno Fernandes heading in at the back post and Garnacho nodding Antony’s cross past Djordje Petrovic.
But all their hard work was undone in the final few minutes as Diogo Dalot brought down Noni Madueke for Palmer to equalise from the spot. The away side then switched off from a corner, allowing Palmer to blast in the winner, via a deflection off Scott McTominay.
Ten Hag was furious at how the match ended and suggested there was a lack of leadership and organisation on the pitch. “We started poorly by giving the ball away, defending poorly on the first two occasions, but by that moment already, you saw we were dominating the game and we returned in the game,” he said. “It was brilliant how we played and we deserved to win this game. But you can’t give it away like we did.
“It’s a team performance and of course, you can point to one of the players. But it’s not about that. It’s about team performance. As I said, as a team, in such moments, when it gets chaotic, you have to deal with such circumstances as a team and we didn’t.
“We made the wrong decisions and we didn’t help each other in possession as well. [We should have been] keeping the ball, going from one side to the other side, or at least pass and move. In and out of possession, we made bad decisions.”
Manchester United crumbled at Stamford Bridge (
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United remain sixth in the Premier League and their faint hopes of gate-crashing the top four have now ended, with an 11-point gap to Aston Villa. Having thrown away five points in injury-time against Brentford and Chelsea, Ten Hag’s side have won just one of their last five league matches and have a goal difference of -1 ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford on Sunday.
“It’s definitely a setback, but now we have to deal with this, to get up again and we will do,” he added. “We are resilient. You have seen today how resilient we are, how we returned in the game, the quality of our football, how we can play outstanding football in moments, some really high [moments]. But football is about results and you have to bring it over the time.”
