Manchester United produced yet another dismal display at Old Trafford in the Premier League as they suffered a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The Eagles have now overtaken the Red Devils in the league table, with Ruben Amorim’s side dropping down to 13th as a result of the defeat.
This was their seventh home defeat this season, the most the club have lost at this stage of the campaign in over a 100 years. And the records will keep on getting broken if INEOS do not act now.
United had only two shots on target despite enjoying twice as much possession as the visitors while also winning 11 corners to 0.
Amorim sends a message to the owners
Apart from a 15-minute spell at the start of either half, the hosts lacked any real cutting-edge up front and the experiment to play with Kobbie Mainoo as a false 9 clearly did not work.
The club have spent in excess of €100 million to bring Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee in but it was a damning indictment on the club to see a midfielder lining up as a striker at home against a team from the bottom-half of the table.
Both strikers belatedly emerged in the second half but could not trouble the scorers, not that many had any high hopes from them. in the first place
Both Ayden Heaven and Patrick Dorgu were unveiled before kick-off but Amorim desperately needs a striker before the end of the window or things could get even worse for the 20-time English league champions.
The Dane will be a huge improvement on Diogo Dalot who was once again poor on the left. The Portuguese clearly struggles out on that flank but the head coach is forced to play him there due to lack of options.
Huge injury blow
Even worse, Lisandro Martinez seems to be heading for a long spell on the sidelines after picking up a knee injury that had him in tears.
The Argentine was looking like he was finally back to his best in this system but now, the coach will have to find yet another solution.
With Luke Shaw injured, there is a lack of a left-footed defender and it will be interesting to see if Heaven gets immediate minutes.
Amorim should have tweaked his system a long while ago but he remains adamant and it looks like this season will be a huge embarrassment for the club.
The defence keeps leaking goals, conceding 22 times at home, more than even Leicester City have let in at their home ground, with the Foxes looking primed to get relegated.
Facing them under the lights at the Theatre of Dreams in the FA Cup has just turned into an even bigger challenge now. Amorim must be praying that his new signings can hit the ground running and help the team out of this current mess.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
