Luke Shaw has apologised for a “completely unacceptable” and “disgraceful” 7-0 loss at Liverpool that he says cannot be allowed to derail Manchester United’s season.
A week after winning the League Cup to end a six-year wait for silverware, the Old Trafford giants headed to Merseyside on Sunday full of confidence with talk of a potential quadruple.
But their faint Premier League title hopes vanished in the Anfield annihilation, when United unravelled in a loss that matched their heaviest-ever defeat, conceding six goals in a woeful second half.
“Unacceptable, embarrassing, to be honest,” England defender Shaw told MUTV.
“I think out there on the pitch I felt embarrassed for us players, for the fans that were there supporting us, that were watching at home, to watch that second half.
“I can only apologise for that and us as players have to own it, we have to stand up and accept that it was nowhere near good enough.”
Shaw said he felt standards had dropped since United won the League Cup at Wembley by beating Newcastle in the final.
“We need to find the good things we were doing before and bring them back because this hurts a lot,” he said.
“It’s really unacceptable what we did in that second half with mistakes.
“We showed no personality, no mentality and for a big team to come here we need to be better.”
The 27-year-old said the team needed a big debrief on Monday, with a Europa League match against Real Betis looming on Thursday.
“We need to keep the belief, keep the character and bring back that personality and mentality that we know we have, but we lost today,” he said.
“I think we can’t let this one result derail our whole season because I think we’re in a really good place.”