David de Gea has described Manchester United’s 7-0 loss to Liverpool as “disastrous” and has told his teammates that they all have a “responsibility to represent the badge”.
Sunday will go down as a dark day in United’s history after an abysmal second-half showing led to their worst-ever defeat to Liverpool and their biggest loss in 92 years. Going into the match, United had lost just once in their previous 12 league games and were classed by some as favourites for the win.
But after a combative first half ended with a 1-0 deficit, six goals after half-time left Erik ten Hag branding the display from his players as "unprofessional". De Gea became the goalkeeper to keep the most clean sheets in United’s history in last weekend’s 2-0 Carabao Cup final win at Wembley.
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But seven days on, he took to Twitter to issue a message to United fans after seeing seven goals fly past him at Anfield - a total he had conceded in his previous eight matches combined.
De Gea wrote late on Sunday: "I know these messages don’t sit well on such a day. This was a disastrous moment for us and these results shouldn’t happen, especially with the journey we are all on.
"We have a duty to this club, a responsibility to represent the badge but we have many opportunities to look ahead, many games coming fast and we have to lock out focus on these."
Ten Hag made no excuses for his players at full-time. He accused his team of playing as individuals in the second half after being the "better team" in the first period.
"The result is quite obvious," the United boss said. "It's unprofessional. Today, first half, I think we were the better team.
"So it was a real surprise to me after half-time so quickly gave the game away. Bad decisions. Decisions on the ball, that was on the first one, obviously.
"But how we anticipate, how we concede the goal is really annoying and then the third was a counter, also so unprofessional about decisions: following in, running in, moving forward, giving the space away in the back end of midfield, not tracking back; especially that one, not tracking back.
"Then it's 3-0, the game is gone, as a team, you have to stick together and that is what we didn't do. It was a surprise for me, I haven't seen this from my team I don't think it's us, I don't think it's Manchester United. It's really bad and poor."
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