'They have regressed'
Former Manchester United first-team coach Rene Meulensteen says the Red Devils showed "no heart and no passion" in Monday night's limp 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
"Yes, it was a pretty awful night, it was not good viewing from a Manchester United point of view," he told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast.
"If you look at the opposition, at Palace, they have a clear pattern and structure in their play. They know how they want to play and how to execute it, but there was none of that with United.
"There was no structure, but also no heart and no passion. And the worrying thing is that Erik ten Hag said they had a week to prepare for this game, so you set out a plan, your tactics, your defence - but all the players have a job to do whether that's in possession or out of possession."
United manager Ten Hag is coming under increased pressure but Meulensteen - who worked under Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford - believes multiple parties are at fault for the club's predicament.
"It is not just the players, everyone is accountable," he added.
"Ten Hag is responsible for bringing a lot of those players, he's responsible for the system of play and the preparation. The players then have to respond to that but clearly somewhere it is disjointed.
"And he [Ten Hag] says after the game that they didn't follow their rules, and there's two reasons why that happens - either they don't want to or they can't, because they don't have that quality. So yeah, it is a tough situation.
"Where as Oliver Glasner is still quite new to Crystal Palace but look at what he has achieved in the space of just a few months. He has turned around a team that was quite lost but now they look so confident and that is not the case for United.
"From my own experience, for any manager that is given a new squad and new players then it will take about 18 months for that to bed in, to get everyone to buy in to your way and what you want.
"Erik ten Hag is beyond that 18 months and after a reasonable season last year, this should be the season that the squad kicks on. But the problem is they have regressed.
"Inside 18 months, you've got the players you want, you know what you want from them and they know the expectation, and then you get the consistency in results and performances.
"That has not happened, and that is worrying when these were seen to be the group of players that were going to shape the future of the club."
Listen to the full chat on BBC Sounds from 08:20
