Smalling: Fans Deserve Better

Manchester United defender Chris Smalling has called on his team-mates to produce an immediate response to Thursday's shock Europa League defeat against FC Midtjylland.

After Memphis Depay had put the Reds ahead, the hosts came from behind to secure a valuable 2-1 lead ahead of next week's return leg at Old Trafford thanks to goals from Pione Sisto and Paul Onuachu.

Smalling admitted after the match that United's overall performance was not good enough, and was quick to say the club's travelling fans deserve a much better display in the second leg.

"It was a performance that wasn’t acceptable," the 26-year-old told MUTV. "We need to start rewarding these fans who travel this far and give us great support throughout the whole game. I think we all know that it wasn’t good enough.

“Conceding before half time didn’t help, we didn’t really kick on with that belief in the second half, and I think we lost far too many tackles and a lot of second balls.

"I think in these games when you play teams that are lesser than Manchester United, you need to win your tackles and second balls. When you don’t do that, then it is an even playing field on the pitch. So I think that we’ve only got ourselves to blame for the result.”

The Reds were dealt a blow before kick-off when David De Gea suffered a knee injury during the warm-up, but Smalling believes that United should have avoided defeat despite the absence of their goalkeeper.

“He is obviously the main focus of our plans, but we can’t blame that injury or the previous injuries on our performance tonight.

“We saw that Midtjylland pressed high, as a team they worked very hard and I think we just didn’t match that. I think the aggression wasn’t there in the second-half, and we paid the price in the end.”