United's troubled season continued with a 3-1 defeat at Brentford on Saturday, their third loss in six Premier League fixtures. Igor Thiago struck twice inside 20 minutes for the Bees before Benjamin Šeško netted his first goal for the club to offer hope.

Bruno Fernandes then missed a crucial penalty - his second failure from the spot this season, following an earlier miss against Fulham - with Caoimhin Kelleher saving well.

The defeat followed a humiliating Carabao Cup exit to League Two side Grimsby, leaving Amorim without back-to-back league wins in his 10 months in charge.

Although United had beaten Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford earlier this month, that victory came after Blues goalkeeper Robert Sánchez was sent off in the first half.

United's struggles mirror last season's dismal 15th-place finish, their lowest since 1989-90. They again find themselves in the bottom half of the table, with performances failing to convince supporters or critics.

"Of course, I mean it's always easy to look to the manager, but in the end the players on the pitch have to do it," said De Ligt.

"We can't say the goals we conceded, or the chances we conceded, are because of what… I don't know, you guys always talk about the system.

"That also has a lot to do with focus, concentration and, if that's lacking in key moments, it's going to make a difference.

"(We are) really disappointed because all week we were speaking about keeping the momentum going, getting another win under our belt.

"If you lose this game, it's a big blow obviously. A lot of lot of time (it is) the same song, but we have to stick together. It's the most important thing.

"We lost against (Manchester) City, we won against Chelsea, so for the next game, we have to analyse what went wrong in this game because a lot of things went wrong.

"We were short in key moments where we made the wrong decisions.

"That makes a big difference in football. We were quite unlucky also with some chances, but overall, it was not good enough. That's a fact."

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