- Luke Shaw has apologised to Manchester United fans
- He says that their style of play was nowhere near perfect
- Erik ten Hag admitted that the Red Devils played dismally
Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has expressed regret following a 7-0 thumping by Liverpool on Sunday at Anfield.
United played a competitive opening 45 minutes before giving up six goals in the second half. The final score against the club’s fiercest rivals was the worst ever.
Shaw according to Viaplay said they lost to Liverpool because they did not play their best game. He felt embarrassed that millions of people were watching them when Liverpool thrashed them 7-0.
“It’s hard to explain this. I think the standards where we have been at, it was nowhere near it. I feel embarrassed for the fans and the people who were watching for us. I can only apologise,” Shaw explained.
He said re-watching the match will be the most painful thing but they do not have much of a choice.
Luke Shaw. Photo by Jack TAYLOR / AFP Photo by JACK TAYLOR/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s not going to be easy watching this back. But he [Ten Hag] is going to make us watch it back, and show us what we need to learn from this embarrassment,” he added.
Shaw has routinely put in good performances and his performance during the first half was impeccable.
But, just like many other players in the game, Shaw lost his resoluteness in an effort to match Liverpool’s aggression which gave way to six more goals.
The players were aware that it was the worst possible mind setting for such a performance, but they were unable to stop it.
Meanwhile, Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag maintains that Sunday’s 7-0 thrashing of his team by Liverpool is an anomaly as they head to the second round of the Europa League.
In 1931 on Boxing Day, Liverpool handed United its heaviest loss in the Premier League era, and it wasn’t until today that United suffered a 7-0 thrashing at Anfield. In three of their last four matches, Liverpool has defeated United by scores of 7-0, 4-0, and 5-0.
Even though Ten Hag’s United team has previously lost 4-0, 6-3, and 7-0, the defeats at Brentford in August and Manchester City in October saw some outstanding responses from the fans.
Speaking post-match at Anfield, ten Hag said it was one of those moments in sports and not necessarily a pattern of defeat.
While admitting that the Red Devils performed dismally, he comforted himself by saying that United has had a lot of great wins in the last weeks.
Erik ten Hag. Photo/Football365
“If it was more often of course, then it is a pattern. But we had so many good results in the last weeks and months, so many good performances and this was a really bad performance,” he said.
The Dutch manager said that the Red Devils played decently in the first half but took a beating in the second half.
Sunday’s match at Anfield was a tough one and for ten Hag, and it sums up the difficult moments he always has as a football manager. Despite the 7-0 loss to Liverpool, there was a lot to learn from the match.
He hopes to build his team’s mentality from the lessons he picked from Anfield to avoid such a huge loss in subsequent games.
“I have had some, the bad days, but also there are days where if you do the right things, if you react with the right matches, as a manager and as a team, you can learn a lot from it and you can strengthen your mentality,” he said according to Manchester Evening News.
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