Manchester United have been told to ‘forget about the title’ while Erik ten Hag slammed his side’s ‘unacceptable’ start against Leeds.
The match at Old Trafford finished 2-2 after the home side had to fight back from two goals down, having been caught cold at the start of each half.
Wilfried Gnonto scored after 55 seconds to stun the home crowd, and less than three minutes after the half-time break they doubled their lead when Raphael Varane deflected in a Crysencio Summerville pass.
Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho later both found the net to take a point from the game, but it was little comfort for manager Ten Hag, as he told talkSPORT.
“Very poor [starts to each half] and it’s unacceptable to start any game,” he said.
“Especially a derby in the way that we did, you are down and have to fight back.
“We made big mistakes and it has to do with attitude, we are not ready to go into the duels, we lose the duels, the formation was also bad when we lost the ball, we didn’t follow our principles and we were quickly down.
“We had a warning in the first half and second half it was the same.”
When asked if they missed suspended star midfielder Casemiro, the Dutchman added: “We have a great team and it doesn’t matter who is coming in, we have to win this game with 11 or with 15 players who are available and on the pitch.”
talkSPORT commentator and Sunderland legend Micky Gray was equally unimpressed with the home team, who were outplayed in Leeds’ first game since sacking manager Jesse Marsch.
“That is as bad as I’ve seen them play all season, it really is,” he said.
“Forget about Manchester United chasing down a Premier League title because away from their strongest XI they’ve got vulnerabilities, they’ve got players still at this football club who shouldn’t really be here.
“You’ve seen it tonight, there’s younger players who you think you’ve got to give the benefit of the doubt at times, but you still want to see more.
“It was just not a performance tonight, they looked really shaky in the first hour of the game, yes they’ve clawed their way back and got something out of it but Manchester City and Arsenal will march forward the rest of the season.”
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