Adam Lord gives his take on Man United's 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace - a result that made it the Red Devils' worst start to a season since 1989.
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00:00 Good evening I guess, welcome to Old Trafford, a very wet Old Trafford, where it's a tale
00:07 of another Manchester United defeat here. There were boos at the final whistle and the
00:12 worrying thing for Eric Tone-Harg at the moment is that that's becoming an all too familiar
00:16 sound here. Now, a quick tale of the game basically. United started pretty brightly,
00:21 that's to be said, Mason Mount looked lively, there were a few good moments, but then once
00:26 they went behind in the 25th minute here to Crystal Palace, Joe and Joe van der Sinde
00:31 hammering home a really nice finish from a Buchi Ezi free kick. The sad truth of the
00:38 matter is United floundered for the rest of the first half and then in the second they
00:40 didn't create a great deal. Mason Mount had a header that he should have done better with,
00:46 Alejandro Garnaccio looked bright when he came off the bench, did nearly force a known
00:50 goal, but United had 77% of the possession today, but didn't really translate that into
00:58 chances. Sam Johnson made a couple of sharp saves, but has he been bombarded all afternoon?
01:04 In truth he hasn't really. The upshot is this 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace here, another
01:08 fine day for Roy Hodgson here, is that's four defeats in seven Premier League games and
01:15 depending on which way you read the stats, the reality is that it's the worst starts
01:19 of a season since 1989. We came here today thinking that after Burnley, positive performance,
01:26 obviously being the same opposition in the Carabao Cup a few days ago, United could make
01:30 it three wins in a week, not three huge victories, but three victories in one the same after
01:35 a pretty worrying start to the season and it's all really fallen quite flat today. There
01:39 are problems all over the park really, Victor Lindelof has had another nightmare today to
01:44 be frank, he just looks all at sea. Raphael Varane was probably the best player for United
01:48 on the day, for me anyway, I'm sure some of you in the comments will disagree, but he
01:52 was probably the best player on the day. But he's the only really reliable defender United
01:56 have got. Lindelof was back in today and really, really struggled. Sofian Amravac was forced
02:02 into action at left back, a lot of silly fouls there for his promise and the excitement about
02:06 his arrival. Casemiro, after a promising performance in Dubuque, reverted to how he had been at
02:12 the start of the season and really, really struggled. He's just not the midfielding force
02:15 at United near at the moment. Said Mount was bright, Bruno Fernandes tried what he could,
02:20 especially in the second half, but it was low in effort. The headline for the team sheet
02:27 was Facundo Palestre was given the nod down the right, kept his place after the League
02:33 Cup victory. But a couple of bright moments aside, he couldn't really get himself in the
02:39 game and Rasmus Hoylund worked hard, nearly had a goal in 15 minutes when it was cleared
02:44 off the line. But he needs a bit more service, really, in truth. There's plenty of industry
02:51 there. He slipped when he had one chance as well and you feel like he's not far off really
02:56 clicking at leading the line, but he does need a bit more help as well. Help might come
03:00 from Marcus Rashford, who was the subject of a question in the press conference we've
03:03 just had. You could see he's Manchester's finest, is Marcus, but there was a lot of frustration
03:10 in the crowd about some of his play today. He came off after 77 minutes and he's just
03:16 not where he needs to be at the moment. It's clear that he's struggling. He gets in a lot
03:19 of promising positions, there's a lot of nice touches, but the end product and the decision-making
03:23 is not there. Now, the decision-making issue, to be fair, could be said for a lot of United
03:27 players today. But Rashford in particular just looked like he was struggling. There
03:31 was frustration in the crowd and his afternoon after those 77 minutes. Ericsson Halgan, his
03:35 press conference was there, has admitted that Rashford's not where he needs to be. Confident
03:38 he will come good, he kept saying that he will come good. He's working hard, he's doing
03:41 the right stuff. But it's not happening for the United England star at the moment. And
03:46 it's not happening for United as a whole. As I say, worst start since 1989 here. Roy
03:50 Hodgson was a happy man in his press conference with a job well done, but his team only had
03:53 23% of the ball. But they didn't need a lot. They took their goal really well, a bit of
03:58 slack defending, but then, as I say, United, there's hardly a bombardment, which is kind
04:03 of what you'd expect in years gone by here, when a team of Crystal Palace's level has
04:07 a 1-0 lead entry in the dying stages. So yeah, plenty. The concern continues really, after
04:15 what I'd hoped would have been a bright week. And there are still plenty of questions for
04:17 Ericsson Halgan to answer.