Ten Hag’s Man Utd exit CONFIRMED amid Chelsea chaos

Robin Bairner

• 5 Apr 2024 07:00 BST
• 4 min read

The final seconds of Manchester United’s Premier League clash with Chelsea on Thursday were nothing but chaos.

In a couple of minutes of absolute carnage, Man Utd saw a 3-2 lead morph into a 4-3 loss, thereby ending the slim hopes they had of playing Champions League football next season.

During those breakneck closing seconds, they were rudderless. They behaved like an U9s team. The standard of their play was simply unprofessional.

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What might have been a brilliant game for the neutral to watch was painful for Red Devils and confirmed what we’ve known all along: Erik ten Hag isn’t the man to take this team forward.

Sure, he wasn’t directly responsible for Antony’s mindless first-half challenge to give away a penalty or Diogo Dalot’s clumsy late stumble that resulted in the equaliser.

Ten Hag was, though, guilty of failing to discipline his players defensively, particularly after the game had gone 3-3.

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United embarrassing at the back

The defensive failings of United shone through in those moments. Not only was Palmer, comprehensively Chelsea’s most dangerous player, given the freedom of Stamford Bridge to fire him the winner from a corner, during the break leading up to that situation, the Blues should have scored, having broke four or five attackers against two defenders.

Man Utd were a team that lacked the type of steel a top manager would have brought them.

When do Manchester City, Liverpool or Arsenal submit such an advantage?

United have done it twice in a matter of days now, having thrown away a winning situation against Brentford at the weekend, albeit one they were lucky to be in.

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Perhaps the most damning statistic of all is that in a Premier League season with comparatively three of the weakest sides ever to grace the division in the form of Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United, Man Utd are right up there in terms of shots faced.

Chelsea had 28 efforts on goal on Thursday. Over 20 is becoming as standard, no team has managed fewer than eight. Even League Two Newport managed 17 in their FA Cup encounter earlier this year.

These embarrassing figures are on Ten Hag and show just how much his Man Utd side invite trouble.

Next up for them is Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday. Good luck.