Erik ten Hag challenges Man United to win every match in Champions League chase after farcical Chelsea defeat

Ten Hag recognized the difficulty of the task after the loss, saying, "That is also what we said before this match"

Erik ten Hag has set his Manchester United squad a simple task for the remainder of the season. Win all their Premier League games to have any chance of qualifying for the Champions League. He must surely know that such a display of consistency is beyond this squad.

It isn't just the collapses over the space of the last week, three goals conceded in added time that have left United five points worse off than they might have been with more favorable timekeeping. It is not as if the 99th minute at the Brentford Community Stadium or the 100th at Stamford Bridge were somehow out of keeping with preceding events in those games. If anything the last few minutes of both those games saw the footballing gods put their fingers on the scales only to tip the scoreline back towards balance. 

Of course they conceded late. They can't keep their opponents from getting shots in minutes one, two, three and four, why should the last few be any different? So far in 2024 no side in Europe's top five leagues has allowed more shots on their goal than United's 225 in 10 Premier League games. In that time period alone they have given up more expected goals (21.56) than Arsenal have in the entire season (21.09). That such a side should breed chaos late in games ought not to be any great surprise.

"In this week we've dropped five points in stoppage time," said Ten Hag. "That's very expensive. The points are getting more expensive, games are running out. We know that, we have to catch up and we are now many points behind. It will be difficult but we will keep fighting."

In a week where both their rivals dropped points, Thursday's thrilling 4-3 defeat to Chelsea saw United fritter away a great chance in the top four race. With eight games to play the Red Devils are nine points behind Tottenham in fifth, which may be a Champions League qualification spot depending on how English clubs fare in Europe. Aston Villa are two points further ahead, having played a game more. Asked directly if United need to win out to reach the Champions League, Ten Hag agreed, ominously adding: "That is also what we said before this match."

Even if their fixture list did not look so challenging, starting with the visit of Liverpool to Old Trafford on Sunday before games with Newcastle and Arsenal, such a run of form would surely be beyond United. Ten Hag would insist that they have it in them to beat almost anyone, the unspoken part of that statement being that they can also lose to anyone... even when they're one goal up in the 100th minute.

Ten Hag insisted that United deserved to win at Stamford Bridge, but Pochettino's claims of the same rang truer. The visitors might have led deep into injury time but that in itself was a baffling state of affairs when they had been reprising mistakes that were supposed to have been addressed after the opening week of the season. It's 29 games later and they are leaving Casemiro to man midfield on his own even if that means Nicolas Jackson breezing away from him at three-quarter pace.

Kobbie Mainoo may be a midfielder of real promise, but when he starts in the Premier League United are giving up more than two expected goals a game. On Thursday he was too easily dragged into a front five that seemed to have no plan for how to win the ball back high up the pitch and get into the counter attacking situations where Ten Hag believes they are so deadly. The United manager spent much of the first half urging his backline to advance up the field, closing the gap to Casemiro, though it was perhaps easy to see why Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane did not want to leave too much space in behind for Jackson and Mykhailo Mudryk.

It is hard to question United's fighting spirit in turning a two goal deficit into a 3-2 lead, even if such a display looked an impossibility before Moises Caicedo handed the ball to Alejandro Garnacho in the 34th minute. It was to that belligerence Ten Hag turned when looking ahead to Sunday's visit of Liverpool.

"I'm sure you will see that our team has character," he said. "You have seen an example today. They are resilient. I'm sure they will be there on Sunday to be in the fight against Liverpool.

"We can't deal with this for long. We have to recover very quick, to turn this around so from tomorrow on we will be in a positive mood, looking forward. We have to take energy. We will be mad, angry. You can take a lot of energy."

That energy has taken United far before, its boundless depths on full display when this side last met Liverpool, wrecking Jurgen Klopp's dreams of a quadruple in a late charge almost as dramatic as Chelsea's triumph yesterday. That rather tells the story of Ten Hag's season, perhaps even a two season tenure that looks unlikely to reach year three. United are a team where energy and character does its best to cover over the gaps where a better functioning system might be. Those qualities, applied when their great rival comes to town, might be enough to achieve something special come Sunday afternoon, but repeating that in the six games that follow? That looks to be an impossibility.