Despondent MU Hammered
Manchester United's dire week ended in a damaging 3-1 defeat at the hands of West Ham on Saturday as Jose Mourinho failed to arrest a growing sense of crisis surrounding the club.
United, who kicked off eight points behind leaders Liverpool, already look out of the Premier League title race and a rift between the manager and Paul Pogba is overshadowing events on the pitch.
West Ham had only won one of their previous 19 Premier League matches against United but an early strike from Felipe Anderson and a Victor Lindelof own goal shortly before half-time left the disjointed visitors with a mountain to climb.
United pulled a goal back through Marcus Rashford in the second half but Marko Arnautovic restored the two-goal cushion for West Ham minutes later.
Afterwards, former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand said the club faced some "big decisions" over manager Jose Mourinho's future.
"As a footballer your DNA is about hard work and effort," said Ferdinand, now a pundit with BT Sport. "I didn't see that today.
"I didn't see them make two or three passes in succession -- that's criminal. I don't see enough players working hard to say to the manager 'this is my place in the team'. You've got to work hard and grind and they didn't."
And a concerned Ferdinand insisted: "There are some big decisions to be made at United now. There will be conversations at the top level, about the future of the manager and the squad, because the basics are not being done. There has to be something said."
The home side dominated the opening minutes of the contest as United failed to find any rhythm.
West Ham were rewarded on five minutes, when Mark Noble slid in Pablo Zabaleta down the right and the Argentine crossed for Anderson to flick the ball brilliantly past David de Gea with his heel.
United started seeing more of the ball but still struggled to create any meaningful chances and were punished just before half-time when a Andriy Yarmolenko shot looped into the net off Lindelof for an own goal.
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