Rio Ferdinand asked if Man Utd player was ‘even on the pitch’ during Crystal Palace game

Rio Ferdinand questioned if one Manchester United was even on the pitch during their defeat by Crystal Palace.

United’s already disappointing 23/24 season took another turn for the worse on Monday night after Palace dismantled them at Selhurst Park.

A brace by Michael Olise plus goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell meant Oliver Glasner’s side came away 4-0 winners.

The defeat leaves manager Erik ten Hag in a vulnerable position as pressure continues to mount on the Dutchman ahead of the summer.

After the match, YouTuber and United fan Stephen Howson revealed that former Red Devil Ferdinand was asking whether Mason Mount was even on the pitch.

Due to United’s heavy injury list, Mount, who joined the club last summer was handed his first start since October.

However, the Englishman looked rusty as he failed to impact the match, he was eventually replaced by Amad Diallo in the 80th minute.

Howson said in his YouTube video: “I was texting with Rio through the game and Rio asked ‘Is he (Mason Mount) even on the pitch?’ I actually thought for the first 10 minutes he’s having a good game. After that, I don’t remember seeing him.”

Getty

Speaking after the match, a disappointed Ten Hag said: “As Manchester United, we should perform better. The players who were available should do better. It's a deserved defeat.

“The performance wasn't what we expected. There are always reasons [why we are not good enough]. Everyone can see our backline, there we have huge problems but, at the end of the day, we have to deal with it. We should have done better than we did.”

He added: “All season, we have huge problems and by now, this is the fourth defeat in this calendar year, so that's not a lot and every time, we had huge problems and many times, we sort it out. Today, we didn’t.”

United will now have to dust themselves off ahead of this weekend’s huge Premier League clash against Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Topics: Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United, Football, Crystal Palace, Erik Ten Hag, Mason Mount

Marcus Chan

@MarcusChan2