EXCLUSIVE
Danny Murphy was astounded with how Manchester United players warmed up for the second-half of their defeat at Crystal Palace.
The Premier League giants were thumped 4-0 away at the Eagles on Monday night in a blow to their hopes of Europa League qualification.
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Goals from Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta ensured United were 2-0 down at half-time and needed a big response to salvage a result in the second-half.
However, when speaking on commentary for talkSPORT, Murphy was left confused with what the player did as they reappeared from the Selhurst Park tunnel.
"There's a member of [Erik] ten Hag's staff that's run from the dugout to the corner flag where they come out here at Palace. He's put three yellow cones down and three red about a yard apart.
"As the players come out, he insisted that each one of them did a little short, fast burst of little short steps in between the three cones and then sprint off into the middle of the pitch.
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"Like that's going to make any difference, look at them now standing around chatting because they're out early. Those little six cones, I don't know what his role is, maybe he's a cone man rather than a set-play man but the reality is, this is how stupid football's gone.
"That they think those little six cones and those little short steps for a millisecond are going to make a difference to the mindset of those players. You do your own one, you've got your head right, you come out, you do some sprints, you do your little knees, you do whatever you want to do to get yourself ready. Doing that is... oh my god."
Host Adrian Durham also noticed that the United players were simply wandering around waiting for the Palace team to come out having made their way back onto the pitch much earlier.
Murphy continued: "The reason you come out early is to get yourself ready and that means run around, do some sprints, get yourself angry, do whatever you need to do.
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"Not stand around and chat sixty seconds after doing three little steps, the sports science coach or the fitness coach thinks, 'I tell you what I'll do, I'll get them going, I'll put three little cones down for when they come out, that'll do it.'
"It's fine doing it to get yourself going but they went and stood around chatting for a minute after!"
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Durham added: "It does seem a really odd thing to send them out early, do the run around the cones and then stand around either chatting or looking lazy or wandering why you're out there that early. Very, very odd from a Manchester United point of view."
Tyrick Mitchell scored Palace's third goal of the night just before the hour mark before Olise netted his second on 66 minutes.
United were outclassed on the night in south London and the defeat, their 13th in the league this season, leaves them eighth in the table with three games left to play.
It has also raised more questions over the future of Ten Hag, with talkSPORT's Jason Cundy labelling it a 'sackable performance', however, talkSPORT understands the manager will not be axed before the FA Cup final.
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Matters won't be made any easier for United either as they next face an Arsenal side who sit top of the table and are gunning for the title in the final two weeks of the season.
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