Erik ten Hag slammed Manchester United for an “unacceptable” and “unprofessional” performance as Liverpool inflicted a joint-record defeat on his side.
Liverpool ran riot in an astonishing second-half at Anfield on Sunday, turning 1-0 at half-time into 7-0 as Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah all grabbed braces.
United had come into the encounter on the back of their first trophy since 2017 – the EFL Cup – and with aspirations of gatecrashing the title race, making their horror showing even more remarkable.
Ten Hag admitted he was “angry” with the defeat – one that leaves United 14 points adrift of leaders Arsenal – but backed his side to bounce back again, citing their recovery after previous humblings at Manchester City and Brentford earlier this season.
“I think we played a decent first-half. One mistake in organisation just before half-time. Second-half it was just not us. It was not our standards. We didn’t play as a team. It was unprofessional. Yes [I am angry]. Definitely,” Ten Hag told BBC Sport.
“I am surprised because I have seen the last weeks and months this team is resilient and has a winning attitude. Second-half we didn’t have a winning attitude at all. We didn’t stick to the plan and we didn’t do our jobs.
“We didn’t track back and it was really unprofessional. We have seen in the past we can bounce back. After Brentford, after Manchester City. This is definitely a strong setback and is unacceptable. I’m really disappointed and angry about it.
“It is a reality check. We have to take this strong.”
Bruno Fernandes, wearing the captain’s armband on a day to forget for the Red Devils, insisted his side would respond and said they “have to get back up”.
“It is very frustrating, disappointing, sad because it is a really bad result. We came here with a different mindset before the game,” Fernandes told Sky Sports.
“The first-half was really good from ourselves, we had a lot of chances. We controlled most of the first-half I think, they didn’t create that much.
“[In the second-half] we tried to go forward and score goals and we lost a bit of balance. We gave too much space away against this kind of team. We have to avoid that.
“The games are coming thick and fast. We had setbacks in the past and we have to come back quickly again.
“This is what Manchester United are about, we can go down but we have to get back up.”
