Louis van Gaal knew Manchester United struggled against defensive-minded teams, and his worst fears came to life in Saturday's 1-0 defeat to West Brom.
The Baggies lined up in a rigid 4-5-1 formation, with striker Saido Berahino often found himself extremely isolated up front.
United controlled the majority of possession but could not find a breakthrough, though it all ran to script for Van Gaal.
"It's what you expected already before the game," the United boss said. "They parked the bus and then it's always difficult to attack because you have a lot of bodies in front of you. But we have to improve. We have to improve in finishing.
"They have more time to break when we have 80 percent ball possession, then they also have 80 percent of the time to break on us," he added.
"We organised it to stop them breaking on us but one free kick and a deflected goal against us and, for all the possession in the second half, we were blowing in the wind."
A few weeks ago, United seemed certain to qualify for the Champions League, but they are now just four points above Liverpool after losing three Premier League matches in a row for the first time since 2001.
United have away matches at Crystal Palace and Hull as well as a home fixture against Arsenal on the penultimate weekend of the season to come. Liverpool, who beat QPR earlier on Saturday, face Chelsea, Palace and Stoke before the campaign ends.
Van Gaal admits his men are in danger of throwing away their seat at Europe's top table.
He said: "Maybe you all remember my press conferences where I said it will be a rat race until the very end.
"I was the only one because we were seven points ahead at the time. But I said [being caught] was still possible. I'm aware of that and my players shall be aware of that. It was unlucky but this is the third match in a row we lost and we didn't score.
"It's now in the hands of my players. We have to work very hard to keep their confidence up because we have everything in our own hands.
"We are four points ahead but our goal is a now a little bit more difficult than before."