Five things Erik ten Hag will want to see from Manchester United vs Crystal Palace

If minds needed sharpening at Old Trafford ahead of Manchester United’s final Premier League game of the season then the prospect of Erik ten Hag being in the Selhurst Park stands could do the job.

United’s season has effectively been over for weeks and the squad had their beach towels out at Brighton, capitulating to a humiliating 4-0 defeat on the south coast. At that point United’s players just wanted the season to end and their misery to be over. Instead, they had to wait 15 days without a game to play the final fixture of a woeful season.

United need to beat Crystal Palace to avoid the prospect of dropping into the Europa Conference League, but it’s hard to make the case that this squad are fussed about which of Europe’s B-list competitions they end up in next season. It was all about the Champions League for United and now they’ve missed out on that, Thursday nights will exclusively be for squad players and academy graduates next season.

READ MORE: Ten Hag to attend Crystal Palace vs United ahead of official start date

But if there was anything that could tempt the squad off the metaphorical beach this weekend, then maybe it is the presence of the man who will be their next manager from next week. Ten Hag has shown he means business at United by eschewing Ajax’s post-season jolly to Curacao to focus on matters in hand at Old Trafford, even though Ralf Rangnick has continued to oversee first-team affairs.

Ten Hag and his assistant Mitchell van der Gaag jetted in to London on Wednesday and have been meeting with club officials to continue their plans for pre-season and the 2022/23 campaign. They will be in the stands in south London to see this squad sign off on a wretched campaign.

Come August 6 and the first day of