‘This is how stupid football has become’ – Manchester United coaches questioned by Danny Murphy for half-time decision in Crystal Palace defeat

talkSPORT’s Danny Murphy was amazed at the way Manchester United players warmed up for the second half of their defeat at Crystal Palace.

The Premier League giants were beaten 4-0 by the Eagles on Monday night, dealing a major blow to their Europa League qualification hopes.

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Goals from Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta put United 2-0 up at half-time and needed a big response to salvage a second-half result.

However, speaking on talkSPORT’s comments, Murphy was left confused as to what the player did as he emerged from the Selhurst Park tunnel.

“There’s a member of (Erik) ten Hag’s staff running from the dugout to the corner flag where they come out of here at the Palace. He’s put three yellow and three red cones about a meter away. one from the other.

“As the players came out, he insisted that each of them take a quick burst of short, short steps between the three cones, then sprint to the middle of the field.

“As if that’s going to make a difference, look at them now, standing, chatting because they’re out early. These little six cones, I don’t know what his role is, maybe he’s a man of cones rather than a fixed play man but the reality is that this is how stupid football has become.

“They think that these six little cones and these little short steps of a millisecond are going to make a difference in the mindset of these players. You do yours, you have your head on straight, you go out, you do sprints , you do your little knees, you do whatever you want to prepare, doing this, it’s… oh my god.

Host Adrian Durham also noticed United players simply wandering around waiting for the Palace team to come out after returning to the pitch much earlier.

Murphy continued: “The reason you go out early is to prepare, which means running, sprinting, getting angry, doing whatever you need to do.

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“No longer talking for sixty seconds after having taken three small steps, the sports science coach or the physical trainer thinks: ‘I tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to get them started, I’m going to put down three small cones for when They will come out, that will be enough.

“It’s nice to do it to get started, but they went and talked for a minute afterward!”

Durham added: “It seems really strange to send them off early, run around the cones, and then stand there chatting, looking lazy or wondering why you’re out there so early. Very, very strange from a united Manchester point of view.”

Tyrick Mitchell scored Palace’s third goal of the evening just before the hour mark before Olise scored his second in the 66th minute.

United were outplayed that evening in south London and the defeat, their 13th in the league this season, left them eighth in the table with three games remaining.

It also raised more questions about Ten Hag’s future, with talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy calling him a “fireable performance”.

Things won’t get any easier for United either as they next face an Arsenal side who sit top of the table and are gunning for the title in the final two weeks of the season.