(Reuters) – Manchester United are a frustrating team to defend against, Crystal Palace defender Brede Hangeland has said ahead of Saturday’s Premier League encounter with Louis van Gaal’s side.

Palace have gone off the boil after a promising start to the campaign, losing four of their last six league games, but still occupy a respectable seventh place in the table.

Alan Pardew’s team go into the match looking to snap a three game losing streak, but have never beaten United in the Premier League before.

“They’re a top club and are very hard to face … but it’ll be tough for them as well to come to Selhurst Park,” Hangeland told the club website (www.cpfc.co.uk).

“They keep the ball more than almost any other team in the league and that can be frustrating if you’re defending against them but if you break on them you can be dangerous.

“It will be interesting to see how that goes.”

The former Fulham defender, who has made eight appearances for Palace this season, says his side need a result to get their season back on track.

“Overall I think we’ve had a decent start to the season, but the last couple of weeks certainly haven’t been good.

“We need to try to rectify that as soon as possible and we’re working hard to do that.

“We’ll be trying to get the win that we desperately need. We need have a good go and see what happens,” the 34-year-old said.

United are currently fourth in the table on 20 points, behind West Ham United on goal difference.

Louis van Gaal’s men, who have failed to score in their last two games, will be looking to bounce back after being knocked out of the League Cup by Championship side Middlesbrough in a penalty shootout on Wednesday night.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)