On Monday, Erik ten Hag will assemble the Manchester United players and offer them the chance to address the terrible performance that led to Liverpool’s 7-0 thrashing of United at Anfield.
Ten Hag stated that the instant dressing-room debrief was all one way as he gave out some hard realities following the Dutchman’s most crushing defeat of his 481-game managerial career.
In comments after the game, he repeatedly referred to United’s performance as “unprofessional,” and it was a humiliating low just seven days after the high of winning the EFL Cup at Wembley.
With Sunday’s outcome joining 7-0 losses to Wolves, Aston Villa, and Blackburn Rovers, all of which occurred in a difficult period from 1926 to 1931, the Red Devils have given up 21 goals in five league games against Liverpool and have never lost a competitive match by more than seven goals.
Ten Hag, a former Ajax manager who is in his first season as United’s manager, is learning more about his players every week.
He was astounded by their unwillingness to play defense and track back against Liverpool in the second half after goals from Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez just before and after halftime gave the hosts a 2-0 lead and stunned United.
As a team, you must keep together, and that is what we failed to do, according to Ten Hag. I was surprised by it. As I haven’t seen this from my team, I don’t believe it to be Manchester United or us. Hence, it is quite terrible and horrible.
When questioned about the players’ failure to explain the second-half collapse, Ten Hag responded, “I didn’t give them the chance until now. I’ve expressed my viewpoint, and tomorrow we’ll discuss it. But I’m confident that this group will regroup, and we must recover.
“I get irritated about a lot of things, but giving up goals so easily is one of them,” the player said.
Mohamed Salah scored twice for Liverpool in the second half to set a new Premier League scoring record and become the first Reds player to score against Manchester United in six straight games.
Salah is the only Premier League player to have recorded 20 or more goals and ten or more assists this season, and two of those assists came in this match, giving him a total of 22 goals and 11 assists in all competitions.
The fact that Gakpo, a Dutch international who was linked to United before transferring from PSV to Liverpool in January, also scored twice may have hurt.
Ten Hag recognized that his lengthy coaching career had not always been smooth, and that this particular afternoon had been among the most difficult ones.
“I’ve had some tough days, but there have also been days when, if you do the right things and take the appropriate actions as a manager and a team, you can learn a lot from it and fortify your mentality,” he said.
“We had so many successful outcomes in the previous weeks, months, and performances that it would undoubtedly be considered a pattern if it occurred more frequently. This was a terribly poor performance, and I only speak of the second half since I thought the team played admirably in the first.”
That was a reasonable observation given that United had previously caused Liverpool some problems before Gakpo’s game-changing goal, which arguably came against the grain of play.
This game marked the first time in over ten years that a Premier League team had conceded six goals in the second half.
The most recent victim of the outrage was Fulham, who lost 6-0 to Hull City in East Yorkshire in December 2013.
No one side in Premier League history has given up more goals in the second half of a game: Wigan, who lost 9-1 to Tottenham at White Hart Lane in November 2009 after giving up eight goals after the break, with Jermain Defoe scoring five of those goals.
