'Man Utd need players' - Ten Hag requests squad help while blasting those responsible for Brentford nightmare

Erik ten Hag continues to make it abundantly clear that he wants more signings this summer after Manchester United's abysmal start to the campaign.

The Red Devils followed up their 2-1 opening-day defeat to Brighton with an embarrassing 4-0 loss to Brentford on Saturday afternoon. All four of the Bees' goals came in the opening 35 minutes at the Community Stadium, a period that seemed to surprise the players just as much as it shocked supporters.

For the second consecutive week, Manchester United were dominated all over the pitch by underdog opposition. Even more than it had against Brighton last week, the defeat highlighted the shortcomings within the squad at Old Trafford and stirred further talk of dipping back into the transfer market.

'We need players'

Despite already adding Lisandro Martinez, Christian Eriksen and Tyrell Malacia to the squad at Old Trafford, there is clearly a desire to add to the squad even further.

Ten Hag told Sky Sports: "It is clear we need players but I don't want to think about that in this moment. The good players we had should have been better.

"I hoped for a better start, but still I have to believe because I have seen good things but the two games from now are disappointing."

What else did Erik ten Hag say?

Unsurprisingly, the new Manchester United manager was not happy, and after admitting that the players must take responsibility for such a poor performance, he picked up his own share of the blame in his interview with BBC Match of the Day.

"It's difficult for me, it's surprising when you start the game like this," he said. "In 35 minutes you concede four goals. The team has to take responsibility.

"I feel really sorry for the fans - they did everything to support us but we let them down. You have to take responsibility on the pitch as a team and as individuals, that's what we didn't do.

"What I asked them to do is play with belief and take responsibility for the performance. We have to work on that.

"The manager is responsible as well. He has the main responsibility and I'll take that and work on that."

In his press conference, Ten Hag added: "It was naive how we played today. You have to play more direct.

"We will learn, we will have to learn, it's not good enough, clearly, it's not the level and the standard of how we want to act."