Paul Merson accuses Man Utd players of ‘looking after themselves’ and letting down Omari Forson

admitted he felt sympathy for after the youngster floundered on his full debut.

represented a further blow to Erik ten Hag earlier this week with a mounting injury crisis showing no sign of abating.

In the absence of the Denmark international, on Saturday, but the teenager struggled to make a positive impression.

Indeed, the 19-year-old was substituted just seven minutes into the second period and was forced to watch on from the bench as for the Cottagers.

‘I felt for him,’ said Merson, reflecting on Forson’s display.’He was getting a little bit frustrated with himself and lost the ball a couple of times.

‘When you come into the team and you’re making your full debut you’ve got to rely on your older players, they’ve got to play well as well.

‘He didn’t get that today none of the players around him did well and it didn’t help him.

‘I felt sorry for him. The older players let him down not giving the ball in proper places and sort of looking after themselves.

‘As an experience he should be proud of himself making his debut for Manchester United at a young age so he should remember that.’

Harry Maguire looked to have rescued a late point for United with a goal from close range, before he was exposed in the build-up to Iwobi’s winner.

The former United skipper, who was earlier fortunate to escape a red card for a dangerous challenge, afterwards bemoaned the absence of Hojlund who could miss the upcoming Manchester derby.

He said: ‘We got hit by the injury to Rasmus, who has been big focal point for us but it is up to us to find the solutions and the areas we need to improve on.

‘He has been our focal point, we can play into him, he holds it up, he starts the press really well, not only that but Marcus has been playing really well on the left.

‘It’s the story of our season, we’ve been injury hit – as other teams have – and we need to find a solution quick.’