Man Utd have obvious £110m problem staring Erik ten Hag in the face after West Ham defeat

Manchester United should have been out of sight in the first half of their 2-1 defeat at West Ham and Erik ten Hag knows it.

“We create so many chances, first half is exactly how I want to see my team playing,” the Dutch boss said. “So dominant. Six or seven 100 per cent chances we should score. When you don’t you have to keep calm. That is a point of improvement but I had not so many criticisms of my team.”

Ten Hag is right. United were at their blistering best and put West Ham to the sword on countless occasions, but somehow failed to find the back of the net.

Diogo Dalot had the biggest chance of the first half, having gone around Lukasz Fabianski only to blaze high and wide when he had an open goal to aim at.

But in truth, his forwards should have put the game to bed as Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes all had golden opportunities to score.

And they were duly punished. West Ham wrestled their way back into the match with some clever half-time Julen Lopetegui substitutions, before Crysensio Summerville snuck in at the back post to tap in from Danny Ings’ mis-hit.

Casemiro got the Red Devils back on level terms before Jarrod Bowen’s spot-kick clinched all three points for the London Stadium hosts, but it was a familiar tale for Ten Hag’s men.

They have the biggest negative differential between expected goals and goals scored in the Premier League this season, eight goals from 14.6 xG, with both Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee struggling to be the clinical number nine United currently need.

The two strikers cost a combined £110million over the past two summers but have scored just three goals in 21 combined appearances so far this season, a worrying strike-rate considering the glut of creative options surrounding them.

Zirkzee, 23, and Hojlund, 21, have time on their side and have shown promising signs of becoming top Premier League strikers. But Ten Hag needs goals now.

His future is on a knife’s edge, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Joel Glazer led a meeting earlier this month where his future was discussed, only to be kept in his current position in charge of the team.

But results such as the defeat to West Ham, while sat 14th in the table, will have club chiefs reviewing his presence again – the next international break is just three weeks away.

Ten Hag needs to get his strikers firing, he paid a colossal amount of money for them, and they may well decide his fate at Old Trafford.