Erik ten Hag slams ‘unprofessional’ Manchester United after Liverpool humiliation

Erik ten Hag has said his team, Manchester United, were “unprofessional” and “unacceptable” on Sunday when they lost 7-0 to bitter rivals Liverpool.

United’s shocking loss to Liverpool was their worst loss against them and tied for the worst in their history. Ten Hag’s team fell apart after Cody Gakpo scored the first goal just before half-time.

In the second half, Liverpool scored six times. Gakpo scored again, and Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, and Roberto Firmino scored twice. Firmino’s goal capped one of the most shocking results in Premier League history.

“I think we played a decent first half. One mistake in organisation just before half-timehalf-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 the ‘BBC’.

“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.”

The shocking loss happened seven days after Ten Hag’s team ended United’s six-year trophy drought by beating Newcastle 2-0 in the League Cup final at Wembley.

That result was seen as the start of a bold new era for United, and Ten Hag was praised for turning around a team that finished sixth in the Premier League before he came from Ajax in the offseason. But United’s terrible performance in such an important game showed how much work Ten Hag still has to do to rebuild a club that hasn’t won the title since 2013.

United is still in third place in the Premier League, but they have already lost embarrassingly to Manchester City (6-3) and Brentford (4-0) this season. This was a new low, but Ten Hag told his team to use it as motivation for the rest of the season, starting with Thursday’s home game against Real Betis in the first leg of the last 16 of the Europa League.

“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,” he said.

Bruno Fernandes, a midfielder for United, agreed with Ten Hag’s call for a strong response to Liverpool’s weak surrender.

“It’s very frustrating and disappointing. It’s sad because it’s a really bad result. We came here with a different mindset before the game,” Fernandes told ‘Sky Sports’.

“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. 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.”