Luke Shaw admitted Manchester United lost confidence and composure after surrendering a lead for the third game in a row in their stalemate with Southampton.
United produced an almost identical performance to those against Middlesbrough and Burnley, starting well and taking the lead before conceding and then struggling to reimpose themselves on the game.
Jadon Sancho scored in the first half and United were well on top in the early stages, but failed to add to their advantage and conceded within two-and-a-half minutes of the restart, just as they did at Turf Moor on Tuesday.
It's an issue that is frustrating boss Ralf Rangnick and Shaw accepted that the confidence on show in the first half disappeared once Che Adams equalised and that he could also feel the nerves inside Old Trafford once the advantage had disappeared.
“History is repeating itself really, the first 30 minutes was good, we created chances, felt on top, got the crowd behind us. We were aggressive, everything was good," Shaw told MUTV.
“Then it’s the same scenario, we go into half-time, we speak about it, say we need to start right, we know we need to, they score early and it’s an uphill task then. Because we’ve been in that situation so many times the confidence drops and the composure goes.
"We definitely felt it in the stadium with the fans, which is understandable the way things have been going.
"We can keep saying it but it’s not good enough, we need to improve fast, the most important thing is points and results. We know what we want to achieve for the rest of the season and if we keep dropping points we’re not going to get in the Champions League. We need to get better quickly."
United created plenty of first-half chances against Southampton but were again punished by a team who were more clinical in front of goal than they were.
They will know hope that West Ham, Arsenal and Tottenham drop points over the rest of the weekend in the battle to claim what will be the final Champions League qualification place.
“That’s football, we’ve seen it in the last few games. We’ve created so many chances, but I still don‘t think we were as good as we could be today, especially in the second half," said Shaw.
