London, Oct. 25, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – Luke Shaw said a result like Manchester United’s humiliation at the hands of rivals Liverpool has been coming as the left-back reflected on an unacceptable performance from himself and the team.
Under-fire manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer called Sunday’s 5-0 home defeat to Juergen Klopp’s team the “darkest day” of his near three years in the dugout, admitting they had hit “rock bottom.”
Liverpool’s biggest ever Old Trafford win compounded poor recent performances and will test the United hierarchy’s support of a man they gave a new three-year deal to in pre-season.
Solskjaer’s side put in a dreadful display against Liverpool, with Shaw – so impressive last season and for England at Euro 2020 – holding his hands up.
“Not good enough,” he said. “I know of course this game is a team sport, a team game, but I think as individuals we need to be accountable for some of the performances.
“And that’s why I’m here now.
“I come out, I say it wasn’t good enough and I speak on behalf of myself, not the team. I’m accountable for my performance and it wasn’t good enough.
“Like I said, I’m not here to speak about the team. We know we can be better but for me also I need to be better than I was. That’s why I come here now, not hide, speak to you, and tell it how it is.”
Put to Shaw that the players looked lost at times and asked if that was on manager Solskjaer, he told Stadium Astro: “Like I said, I think it’s ourselves that we need to look at, first and foremost, in the mirror.
“Are we doing everything right and preparing right for the games in ourselves? Of course we have the tactics and how the manager wants us to play, but I think at times we’re way too easy to play against.
“I think, for example, you look at the first goal, it can’t be possible that they can have sort of three running through in the first five minutes. We need to be more compact, we need to be better and we know that.
“I think also maybe we can say this result was coming.
“I think in past games where we’ve won, we haven’t been at our best and we know that.
“We felt that inside the dressing room and we need to reflect and we
have to move on from this because it hurts.”
United travel to Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday, with a Champions League trip to Atalanta and Old Trafford return against neighbours Manchester City swiftly following.
“Personally, I just want to thank the fans for how they reacted. 5-0 down and they were still with us, they were still there, still singing, still cheering, stayed until the end.
“Of course we really appreciate that and of course we want to apologize to them for the performance we put on because it’s not acceptable and it’s not a performance of a Manchester United team like ourselves.”
GNA