23 December 2023 , 16:41
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Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw has admitted the 2-0 defeat away at West Ham was "just not good enough".
Erik ten Hag's side have now lost more games than they have won this season and pressure is beginning to mount on the United manager, but Shaw has seemed to suggest the players must also take responsibility for such a poor showing at the London Stadium.
Jarrod Bowen broke the deadlock for the Hammers in the 72nd minute following Lucas Paqueta's stunning through ball, before Mohammed Kudus all but ended the tie as a contest with West Ham's second just five minutes later. Again Paqueta supplied the assist after a Kobbie Mainoo error.
After the game, Shaw was scathing in his assessment of United's performance. "Just not good enough really," the defender conceded. "I think we have to win games and that’s it.
"We keep losing games and points and we’re making it hard with ourselves, especially with the second half - it was not good enough. In the first half we controlled the game and I think we had chances again. If we score the first goal, maybe the result is different but we don’t, so we suffered in that second half, so it was not good enough."
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Ten Hag will be all too aware of the amount of problems that face him at the moment, but United's misfiring attack is certainly one of the biggest. This latest defeat marked a four-game run without a goal, something the Red Devils haven't done since 1992.
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Luke Shaw has blasted Manchester United's display away at West HamShaw addressed the problem, but made clear he doesn't know how to solve it. He claimed: "I don’t know. It’s tough to think what is going on. I think maybe we are not creating enough, but on the other hand when we do we’re not clinical. I think maybe it could be a lack of confidence at the moment, but sometimes that’s normal in football, it happens."
Following the defeat at West Ham, United now languish all the way down in eighth. Ten Hag's side are six points adrift of local rivals and fourth-placed Manchester City, having played one game more.
Things aren't likely to get any easier for United in the coming days, with their next outing coming at Old Trafford against an in-form Aston Villa side on Boxing Day.