It was the body language of every Manchester United player which told the whole, shocking story.
At half time, as they waited for referee Martin Atkinson to sort out his equipment, there was the faraway stare of the shellshocked trenchman, the noise from the big guns of the Kop glazing the eyes. None looked at each other, or towards the opposition which had tormented them through surely the most one-sided first half in living memory between these two giants of world football.
And no wonder, because they had been tortured - and that is the correct word - by the sound of small explosions at every turn, all around them. To continue the war analogy which it surely must have felt like, they were outflanked by a superior general with modern methods.
