Manchester United icon Rio Ferdinand has issued a scathing assessment of Sunday's 7-0 humiliation at the hands of Liverpool and admitted it was "a massacre".
Despite trailing by just one goal at half-time, a stunning second-half display from the hosts at Anfield and some disastrous defending by United meant Erik ten Hag's side suffered their heaviest defeat of the Premier League era. Braces from Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah were capped by a goal from Roberto Firmino late on.
Many of the travelling Red Devils supporters left before the full-time whistle, while those who stayed were eventually applauded by the embarrassed United squad after Raphael Varane demanded his team-mates make their way over to the away end.
Ferdinand dissected the disastrous defeat on his YouTube channel, where he did not exactly hold back on just how damaging the result was.
"We’ve been pulverised," the ex-England ace conceded. "That was a massacre, an absolute massacre at Anfield. That’s all you can call it. The players will be feeling embarrassed.
"Ten Hag, man… If I was him, the team would know I would be upset but one of the main points would be do not let this derail your season now. You come back in tomorrow, you get back to work, you look at what went wrong and then you go to Southampton at Old Trafford.
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"You make sure that you give the fans something to shout about after the embarrassment here at Anfield. All of you, sit there and let that feeling sink in about how embarrassing and how bad it feels."
Ten Hag sent a similar message when discussing the performance as he touched on how his players had let United fans down with their feeble display.
"That was tough and we really have to thank them [the fans]," the Dutchman explained. "I can't blame them for leaving because it was a really bad performance. I'm ashamed myself for the fans today."
He went on to discuss the manner of the defeat, adding: "It was a really bad performance and the worst of the year. We lost the game at the end of the first half and at the start of the second, but you have to keep your head up and we didn't.
"It's all about showing discipline and we didn't, so that's when you start conceding goals. It's a really unprofessional performance and unnecessary. You have to do your jobs and we didn't."
