Christian Eriksen is confident Manchester United will secure Champions League football this season, but he's warned the team must find a way to score more goals.
United suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League last week, losing 1-0 against both Brighton and West Ham. Those two defeats have seen Liverpool, who are in fifth position, close the gap and the pressure increase for the run-in.
Erik ten Hag's side are a point ahead of Liverpool and they have a game in hand, but they are stuttering at the business end of the campaign, which has presented rivals Liverpool with an opportunity to capitalise on any further losses.
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The silver lining is that qualifying for Champions League football is still in United's hands. The Reds have Wolves, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Fulham still to play and Eriksen is confident of a top-four finish, despite the team's lack of goals.
"It's hard to say [why the team didn't bounce back]," Eriksen told MUTV after the West Ham defeat. "We tried. We started the game well, we felt we were in a good position to get a good grip of the game. We lose the ball, David slips and then of course, it's difficult from there.
"We have bounced back but sometimes we need extra. Hopefully next time we can do better. That's been a theme of many games this season [wastefulness]. We had a lot of chances to kill the games early but we didn't do it.
"In the Premier League, you are punished if you don't take your chances. He's [De Gea] one of the reasons for where we are now. Everyone can have a day without or make a small mistake. It's difficult as a 'keeper because if you make a mistake, it's a goal.
"They made it difficult for us to break through. We also made it difficult for ourselves. I can't say [if the schedule is the reason for a drop in form] because I missed a few months, but I don't think so. We saw today that we still have the energy to push.
"I'm sure for the next five games we'll have enough energy to finish in a strong way. With the quality we have and the chances we create, at some point we will score, so I'm confident [of securing top four], but we have to work on a lot.
"We have to change how we score, but I'm confident of qualifying for the Champions League."
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