BRIGHTON, May 8 (AP): Manchester United must want this season to end now.
Make that five straight away losses for United in the English Premier League after a chastening 4-0 thrashing by Brighton on Saturday.
“It was a terrible performance,” United manager Ralf Rangnick said.
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With just one game left this season — at Crystal Palace in two weeks — United has little to play for in a fifth straight season without a trophy. The team is already assured of finishing with its fewest points since 1991 — two seasons before the Premier League era launched.
If Erik ten Hag needed a reminder of the mess he is inheriting when the current Ajax coach takes over at Old Trafford in the offseason, it was this embarrassing performance at Amex Stadium.
Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella scored their first goals in English soccer — Cucurella was reduced to tears after slamming home his shot in the 49th — before close-range finishes by Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard by the hour mark.
“From the first until the last minute, it was not enough,” Rangnick said. “We can only apologize for this performance and a humiliating defeat.
“We were never in a position where we could stop them playing through our lines. We told the players to be as compact as they could but we couldn’t stop it.”
In United’s previous four away games in the league, it lost at Arsenal 3-1, at Liverpool 4-0, at Everton 1-0 and at Manchester City 4-1.
United is in sixth place, five points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, and cannot finish in the Champions League qualification spots.
