Crystal Palace 4-0 Man Utd: Another London Drubbing

It was a game that we should be seeing weekly based on how we play. The fact our heaviest defeat has only come now is actually quite the surprise. Olise, Mateta, Mitchell and Olise again scored past Onana. Casemiro had his finger prints all over those Palace goals, as did Evans, who looked even older than his elderly football age. It might be the nail in the coffin for Ten Hag finally.

Casemiro’s Hawthrons

Everyone remembers that game away to West Brom where Gary Neville was knocked from pillar to post by their left winger. No one knew more than the man himself as he walked into the Ferguson’s office the next day and informed him of his decision to retire. The manager managed to convince him to stay on until the end of the season as this game happened in January.

It won’t be the same result because Casemiro is younger and probably still thinks he can do something somewhere – but I doubt it will be at Old Trafford anymore. He was playing out of position, as he has had to do due to the amount of injuries in defence, which only seems to increase with each passing day. There was no excuses for what we saw on the pitch tonight. With United over the years, it has been an accusation that it has been a downing of tools but really with Casemiro, it is a crisis of confidence and crippling aging that is exacerbated by the manager’s baffling selections and tactics. The first goal you saw dive, almost slowly collapse to the floor, with which Olise was easily able to side step. In fact, you could genuinely see the surprise in the right winger watching Casemiro dive past the ball to predict him going backwards but lead him towards his own goal. It could have been stopped after that but it was just so indicative of all the faults of Casemiro all season.

Jamie Carragher in the studio of Sky Sports said that he should have been dragged at half time and he probably would have been if there were more options on the bench to do so but we are down to our bare bones in that department and the manager probably thought it best not to throw one of the young defenders into the proverbial lion’s den. But it led to what we saw for the 4th goal where he was muscled off it by Munoz, who passed to Olise and fired past Onana. It has been a slow death. It is a metaphorical version of watching your elderly dog gingerly try to do the things he used to. The challenge at the end of the game on Edouard was a nice summation for Casemiro tonight. Neville was captain that day in the West Midlands, as was Casemiro tonight. Won’t be many United fans begrudging him going to Ten Hag’s office to said he has cleared out his locker and he will help the manager pack up his office.

Other Thoughts

Hojlund doesn’t get the requisite service a United striker should but on nights like tonight, even if he did, he would have fluffed it anyway. It was a truly diabolical performance from the young lad and he needs to help himself long before he looks at others giving him the ball to help him.

Onana’s ability to make a technical error where you’re not sure how a goal has gone in how it has so you’re not sure if he has made a mistake or not is quite fantastic. His positioning for the first was academy level. Olise’s 2nd went in the middle of the goal and a better keeper would have saved it. Even his saves, it he makes the simple look far more difficult than it should.

Ten Hag went into a game playing an Eriksen Mount and Mainoo midfield. The result is truly what he deserves. Amrabat came into proceedings at 3-0 because he knew there was nothing he could do the bring the game back but sure it up. Any fan would tell you what would happen yet the manager couldn’t see it until it was too late. He has genuinely built a relegation level team who have managed to steal points through either sheer luck or individual quality.