The culprits of Manchester United 's utterly humiliating 7-0 defeat to arch rivals Liverpool have arrived for training after Roy Keane suggested that they should "go into hiding".
Furious manager Erik ten Hag summoned his players to their Carrington base on Monday morning, little over 12 hours after the full-time whistle blew at Anfield to signal the end of the Red Devils' torment. Among the players spotted arriving for training was David de Gea, who had to pick the ball out the net an embarrassing seven times.
Diogo Dalot, who also endured a humiliating afternoon, was also seen behind the wheel of his car. The players checked in for an early session after Liverpool produced a record-breaking win by scoring six of their seven goals in a totally one-sided second half.
It was only 1-0 at half-time, but United returned to the pitch without their backbone and were suitably punished by Jurgen Klopp 's rampant team. "Embarrassing" by their own admission, club legend Keane revealed how he'd have reacted to being obliterated in such a big game - a rarity in his career but not for the United players who were humbled at Anfield.
"I try and imagine: If I had ever been beaten in a big game like this, I would go into hiding as a player," the former Red Devils captain ranted on Sky Sports post-match. "You would. Never mind a few days, a few months! It really is that embarrassing for the players. What can you do? That's the game. They have to bounce back and they have a big European game in the middle of the week [at home to Real Betis in the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday]."
Keane's ex-United team-mate, Gary Neville, echoed his sentiment. " We played in that dressing room for 15 years and were never once labelled unprofessional, so they've got to own that," Neville stated. "They've got to have that living on them, that the manager thinks they're unprofessional today.
"Over the last few months they've not been unprofessional, they've given their all every single game. I'm hoping it's a blip, I'm hoping it's a freak performance and they finish this season with a couple of trophies and in the top four - that would be a great season. I think that’s what they need to concentrate on now."
Indeed Ten Hag did label his players "really unprofessional" for their second-half collapse, saying: "I don't have an explanation. I have to find out, it's only going on what I've seen. The first half was quite in controlled. Maybe we had the better chances, we made one mistake.
"In defensive transition, there was no team any more, we didn't stick to the plan, there were 11 individuals. I don't know, it was really bad. I've given my opinion [to the players]. It's unprofessional, you have to stick together as a team, fight with each other, and we didn't do that. We were really indisciplined in our jobs.
"You can have setbacks, but what can't happen is that you don't stick together. You have to do your job. It's not possible that we made the wrong decisions in the transition and then we didn't run and match the runs. We didn't track back. For me, that's unprofessional.
"I'm really disappointed and angry, especially for our fans. We let them down, but also as a squad, as a team, you can't allow this. You have to stick together, you have to fight with each other and support each other, and you have to defend. That's what we didn't do.
"It's one game, but a big defeat, unacceptable, especially for our fans, especially against Liverpool, but we will bounce back. This team is strong enough, we will reset ourselves, and we will bounce back."
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There were suggestions that fatigue after a relentless run of fixtures factored into the Red Devils' defeat, but captain Bruno Fernandes made no excuses. ''It can't be because we have a game on Thursday," Fernandes affirmed. "The games are coming quick and we have had setbacks in the past, so we have to come back again.
''This is what Manchester United is about, we can go down but we have to go back. We know how good we are and we know that, today, we didn't show and perform at our level. We know that this team is really good and it can do really good things, today was not the case, but I am pretty sure this team can do great things.
''Together with the fans, I have to appreciate their support and for all their appreciation at the end of the game, even in a game like this, when you lose to your biggest rival. Being still in the Europa League, still in the FA Cup, winning the Carabao Cup and this team needs to get back on track.''
Defender Luke Shaw, who got his hands on United's first trophy in six years just a week before the Anfield mauling, is braced for a dressing down at Carrington - and not for the first time this season. "That's what we're having, a big debrief [on Monday] about the game, about what went wrong," Shaw, who's also lost 4-0 to Brentford and 6-3 to Manchester City this term, told MUTV.
""It was completely unacceptable. Our standards have clearly dropped since we won that trophy and, in the last couple of games, we haven't been our normal selves – we need to find the good things we were doing before and bring them back, because this hurts a lot and it's really unacceptable what we did in that second half.
"We showed no personality and no mentality. For a big team to come here, we need to do better."
