Three decisions that Erik ten Hag got wrong during the 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace

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Manchester United have suffered yet another defeat in the Premier League this season after a 1-0 home reversal against Crystal Palace.

After dismantling Roy Hodgson’s side earlier in the week, Manchester United lacked cohesion and attacking purpose as they failed to score at home in the Premier League for the first time since the 0-0 draw against Newcastle United last season.

The problems are mounting up for Erik ten Hag’s side and the alarming fact is that United never really looked like scoring against a resolute and dogged side.

There were problems and strange decisions throughout the game that really cost the Red Devils.

Struggles in attack

Despite having more expected goals than the visitors 1.97 vs 0.93, according to the Expected Goals X account. The reality was, however, that Crystal Palace never really looked in trouble throughout the game.

United had a few chances, Bruno Fernandes forced Sam Johnstone into a good save, similar can be said of Rasmus Hojlund, but, apart from these chances, Ten Hag’s side failed to worry Johnstone in the Palace goal.

This will be of big concern for Ten Hag with his side already six points outside of the top four places.

Team selection issues

The lineup was not too dissimilar to one Ten Hag fielded in the Carabao Cup but the performance was vastly different.

Harry Maguire should have started the game but instead, he was on the bench and limited to three minutes off the bench in a very unorthodox attacking role.

Victor Lindelof, Maguire’s replacement, lost his man for Joachim Anderson’s goal and was generally poor throughout and won 0% of his aerial duels against Jean-Philippe Mateta, a physically imposing striker.

Amrabat’s role

Sofyan Amrabat once again started at left-back and was inverting but the issues with the former Fiorentina midfielder starting in defence were there for all to see.

Marcus Rashford was consistently looking for an overlap from full-back but, due to Amrabat not being an attacking outlet, Rashford had nobody running past him, so he struggled.

With Sergio Reguilon set for a spell on the sidelines, United currently have no first-team left-backs which is going to cost them more and more going forward.