Erik ten Hag knows who is to blame as Man Utd boss suffers fresh setback at West Ham

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag once again finds himself drinking in the last chance saloon following a disastrous 2-1 defeat away at struggling West Ham

For a few moments, Erik ten Hag stood statue-still on the touchline, looking as though he did not know who to confront first.

David Coote, who had somehow listened to Michael Oliver and given the most dubious of winning penalties to West Ham? Or maybe his own Diogo Dalot, who had produced a miss of the season contender as Manchester United squandered chance after chance to dispose of mediocre opposition?

Instead, Ten Hag kept his dignity, shook Coote by the hand, applauded the travelling fans and made a sharp exit.

Of course, this one is on him. Of course, he has to take responsibility for another miserable loss. Of course, the big picture of his Old Trafford tenure is not at all pretty. Of course he is in the last chance saloon.

But the last chance saloon has been Ten Hag’s local for a long, long time - and nothing can have tasted as bitter as this.

So, yes, the defeat was on Ten Hag but the defeat was also on Dalot and on the decision that allowed Jarrod Bowen to score the winner from the spot.

It was not just Dalot who was culpable. Exactly two years, Alejandro Garnacho made his senior debut and this was his 100th appearance, so he is no rookie, no prodigy, and 12 goals in 66 Premier League outings is nothing to write home about. But this 20-year-old has a frightening amount of untapped potential. Right now, though, the youngster fits into that old chestnut of a category - he can produce great finishes but he is not a great finisher.

He can score THE goal of the 23/24 season with an overhead kick and expertly convert the toughest of volleys in the narrow win over Brentford recently. But he can hit the crossbar when he should have scored from one Bruno Fernandes pass, like he did here, and he can skew a one-on-one opportunity wide, like he also did here.

To be fair, he had plenty of rivals when it came to wastefulness, Fernandes missing a headed sitter before Dalot told his captain to hold his beer, blazing over after it looked like he could walk the ball into an empty net.

The opportunity was presented to Dalot by a Lukasz Fabianski mistake - just one of a catalogue of errors that characterised the home side’s lamentable first half performance.

To be fair to Julen Lopetegui, he acted decisively at the interval and three replacements made a difference, with Crysencio Summerville, in particular, shaking West Ham into life.

Summerville was everything the Hammers had not been in the opening 45 minutes - direct, adventurous and quick. He was fortunate to benefit from a Danny Ings mis-kick when he cleverly prodded in his first West Ham goal but he deserved that luck.

But talking of luck, that was nothing compared to the home team’s fortune after Casemiro had headed in an equaliser.

There cannot have been a soul in the stadium who thought Matthijs de Ligt had committed an offence when he collided with Ings during a bit of a melee.

But Oliver sent Coote to the screen and, almost apologetically, the on-field referee pointed to the spot and Ten Hag was doomed to another defeat and another week in the last chance saloon.

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