Manchester United midfield selection vs Crystal Palace showed Erik ten Hag what he needs to do

It felt fitting that Ralf Rangnick's 29-game tenure at Manchester United ended with the same three-man midfield, in the same positions, that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer trusted implicitly and was often criticised for.

The McFred axis was used as a stick to beat Solskjaer with and the possibility of changes to a predictable midfield was one of the things supporters were most excited to see under the interim manager.

He has tried different combinations in there and briefly tried a 4-2-2-2 and a 4-3-3, but the fact he finished the campaign by harking back to the Solskjaer era showed how little had changed since December.

That wasn't the only similarity with Solskjaer's last stand. That trio didn't play at Vicarage Road but Bruno Fernandes did and he cost his side a goal that day in a manner that wasn't too dissimilar to this.

He often tries the speculative crossfield pass straight from a throw and just as he did at Watford he presented the ball to the opposition at Selhurst Park. Wilfried Zaha took the present with glee.

Fernandes is clearly an excellent player but he has an impetuous and risky streak that can harm his own team. One untaken chance for Conor Gallagher summed United's midfield up. He collected the ball in acres of space centrally, 25 yards from goal, with no opposition midfielder near him. They had all been dragged over to the right of the pitch and left a significant void.

Erik ten Hag's top priority this summer has to be fixing United's midfield.

Hannibal Mejbri might have expected his first United start to come earlier than the final day of the season after his interesting cameo at Anfield.

He won plenty of supporters for going on and kicking Liverpool's players with United 4-0 down, but he didn't seem to win him