Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said he had the “main responsibility” for a humiliating 4-0 loss away to Brentford on Saturday.

The defeat left the one-time kings of English football bottom of the Premier League.

Brentford, who only ended a 74-year absence from English football’s top flight with promotion to the Premier League in August 2021, scored four goals inside the opening 35 minutes to spark joyous scenes at their west London ground.

United fell behind in woeful fashion when goalkeeper David de Gea somehow let a Josh Dasilva shot slip through his grasp before Mathias Jensen struck as the visitors failed to play out from the back.

Ben Mee then exposed United’s frailty from set-pieces for his first Brentford goal and Bryan Mbuemo rounded off a stunning counter-attack 10 minutes before half-time.

Former Ajax manager Ten Hag had seen his United reign begin with Brighton recording their maiden win at Old Trafford last week, but this defeat plunged the Red Devils to the bottom of the table for the first time in 30 years.

“You have to take responsibility on the pitch as a team and as individuals, that’s what we didn’t do,” Ten Hag told Sky Sports.

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

He added: “The manager is responsible as well. He has the main responsibility and I’ll take that and work on that.”

In a separate interview with the BBC, the United manager said his team had to be “ready for the battle”.

United were last crowned champions of England in the 2012/13 season in manager Alex Ferguson’s final campaign before retirement.

But while Ten Hag was keen to bolster his squad, he was adamant the team he sent out at Brentford were far better than this result indicated.

“It is clear we need players but I don’t want to think about that at this moment,” he said.

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Liverpool next week