Jack Ross admits he's "humiliated and embarrassed" by Dundee United's thumping defeat to Celtic at Tannadice.
The sorry Terrors shipped NINE goals to Ange Postecoglou 's side and they've now lost 24 goals in five games since their first-leg win over Alkmaar. They're out of Europe and rooted to the bottom of the Premiership with the pressure mounting on Ross after Kyogo and Liel Abada hit hat-tricks on Tayside.
He told Sky Sports after the game: "It's humiliating and embarrassing. There's a few ways to look at it, but humiliating and embarrassing are the only words for it. You shouldn't lose a game by that many goals and you shouldn't lose a game in that manner of performance. We have done, so every ounce of criticism that will fall on my shoulders is deserved. From a professional perspective, it's sore. The players should feel the same way because if they have that desire to succeed, when you have days like today it should hurt immensely. But you have to own the responsibility for it and own the solution as well.
"As a manager you continually look to solve problems on a weekly basis, so every bit of work I'm doing at the moment is to solve problems on the pitch. I've not found the solution yet but I'll not stop searching for it for as long as I'm given the opportunity to do so. But I need to find it and I need to find it quickly, because there are lots of problems to solve at the moment for us.
"I don't think (the players) should be protected from the criticism. I'm hugely protective of my players and I own the responsibility, because it's my shoulders it falls upon, but you can't run away from it. Every player should feel embarrassed and humiliated and struggle to sleep tonight.
"It's professional pride. So irrespective of the level of opponent, you should always feel that way, if you've got the desire to win.
"Prior to this season, I don't think I had ever lost a game by more than three goals as a manager. So I'm hurting and suffering, but it doesn't diminish my want to put it right. I want to overcome it but it hurts a lot. I accept the speculation because that's the nature of the job, and it's absolutely deserved after those two results (9-0 Celtic and 7-0 Alkmaar).
The United boss was asked if he planned to make any more signings to help put things right but insists he's focused on getting more out of his current group first. He said: "I'm not getting enough from the current group I have so it would be weak and remiss of me to look for excuses and apportion blame to others.
"We've got a good group here, led by me, that should be doing better than they are. I can understand people pointing to that and wondering where we can strengthen but first of all I need to get more from the current group."
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