Manchester United lose 13th game of the season, most before Christmas since 1930

Manchester United suffered a dismal 2-0 defeat at West Ham as goals from Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus put further pressure on manager Erik ten Hag on Saturday. Ten Hag’s side were blown away by West Ham’s twin strikes in the second half at the London Stadium, condemning them to an eighth Premier League loss already this season. Manchester United have lost 13 games in all competitions this season – their most defeats before Christmas since 1930-31 when they finished bottom of the league table.

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— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 23, 2023

Manchester United, now eighth in the Premier League, have managed just one win in seven games in all competitions. They have lost three of their last four matches and failed to score in any of them for the first time since 1992. The defeat is another blow for Ten Hag, whose increasingly tenuous hold on his job will surely be the first thing for Jim Ratcliffe to resolve when the British billionaire finally completes the purchase of 25 percent of the club. It has been a dreadful second season for Ten Hag, whose team have been eliminated from Europe completely after finishing bottom of their Champions League group, while also crashing out of the League Cup. With Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire Victor Lindelof and Raphael Varane all absent, 19-year-old Willy Kambwala made his United debut in central defence. It took Manchester United over half an hour to muster a shot on target when Antony’s tame effort was easily held by Alphonse Areola. Lucas Paqueta’s sublime chipped pass prised open the United defence and Bowen made a perfectly timed run to beat the offside trap before scrambling his shot past Andre Onana for his 11th league goal this season. United were in disarray and Kudus delivered the knockout blow six minutes later. Encapsulating their dreadful display, Kobbie Mainoo carelessly conceded possession and Kudus accelerated clear to drill a low strike past Onana from the edge of the area. Ten Hag urges Man Utd to ‘stick together’ Ten Hag pleaded with his side to “stick together” and keep calm. There have been reports that United’s players have lost faith in Ten Hag due to their manager’s hardline personality. The Dutchman urged his squad to stay unified as the crisis mounts. “In 2023, we won a Cup, we played the FA Cup final, we were third in the league. There were highlights but we are over-performing, but in this moment we are underperforming,” Ten Hag said. “There are reasons for it, we have many injuries, so the team will be better if the injured ones return. “We have to be calm, stick together, stick to the plan, we have to do it together.” The former Ajax boss admitted United paid the price for failing to take their chances, with Alejandro Garnacho guilty of a glaring miss. “I think it was a decent 72 minutes where we didn’t take our chances. We should have gone in the lead but we didn’t and then it was one moment of switching off,” he said. “He (Alejandro Garnacho) was one on one with the keeper and he could’ve taken it but we didn’t.” Ten Hag conceded injury-hit United’s lack of consistent defending was a key to their struggles. “At this moment we are not top, but we have seen last week against Liverpool we were head-to-head. We didn’t score, we had the best opportunities of the game,” Ten Hag said. “There we defended very well for 90 minutes. That has to be always our standard like what we did there. You have to bring that to every game on the pitch.”