Manchester United suffered one of the most crushing defeats in its history as the coach lamented the “darkest day” in his years in charge.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said Manchester United’s 5-0 thrashing at home to Liverpool on Monday morning (AEDT) is the low point of his nearly three years in charge of the Red Devils, but insisted he will continue as manager.
United trailed 4-0 at halftime for the first time in Premier League history as Mohamed Salah struck twice after Naby Keita and Diogo Jota opened the floodgates inside the first 15 minutes.
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Salah completed his hat-trick shortly after the break as Liverpool won by a five-goal margin for the first time away to their fiercest rivals.
“It is not easy to say something apart from it is the darkest day I have had leading these players,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports. “We were not good enough individually and as a team.
“The whole performance was not good enough.”
Solskjaer’s men have taken just one point from the last 12 in the Premier League to fall eight points off leaders Chelsea after just nine games.
United were thrashed 6-1 at home to Tottenham in front of an empty Old Trafford last season, but recovered to finish second in the Premier League.
However, Solskjaer said this defeat was even more damaging given the context of the rivalry between the clubs.
“You can look at last season we lose to Spurs 6-1 this is worse, miles worse,” he added.
“This is miles worse for me as a Manchester lad. I’ve just got to say we have to get over this as quickly as we can.”
Solskjaer is yet to win a trophy since taking charge in December 2018, but has been credited with leading the club back into the Champions League in the past two seasons.
And he insisted he will not step down despite the growing calls for him to lose his job.
“I have come too far, we have come too far as a group. We are too close to give up now,” he said.
“The players will be low but there’s loads of characters there.
“We know we are rock bottom, we can’t feel any worse than this. Let’s see where we take it.”
United captain Harry Maguire issued an apology to the club’s fans for the humiliating defeat.
“We apologise to the fans, it was nowhere near good enough for this club,” said the England defender.
“To lose to Liverpool in any game of football hurts. The way we lost the game, to be 4-0 down at halftime in front of our fans, like I say it is not good enough.”
Keita started the rout before Diogo Jota doubled Liverpool’s lead inside 15 minutes. Salah then took centre stage to take his tally for the season to 15 goals in 12 appearances and become the top-scoring African player in Premier League history in the process.
To round off a miserable day for United, Paul Pogba lasted less than 15 minutes as a second-half substitute as he was shown a straight red card for a reckless lunge that forced Keita to leave the pitch on a stretcher.
Liverpool’s first victory in front of a crowd at Old Trafford under Jurgen Klopp moves them back above Manchester City into second, just a point behind leaders Chelsea.
By contrast, United’s hopes of a first league title since 2013 already look over as they remain eight points off the leaders.
That gap is likely to grow in the coming weeks with Tottenham and City to come in the next fortnight before an international break.
Salah teed up Keita to open the floodgates after just five minutes with a composed low finish past goalkeeper David de Gea. Jota then justified his selection ahead of Sadio Mane as he stretched to turn in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross to double Liverpool’s advantage.
Salah has now scored in 10 consecutive games and overtook Didier Drogba with his 105th Premier League goal when the Egyptian turned home Keita’s cut-back with the United defence all at sea.
Cristiano Ronaldo was lucky to avoid a red card as United’s frustrations bubbled over in first-half stoppage time when he was booked for lashing out at Curtis Jones in a sign of what was to come as the home side lost their discipline.
Liverpool inflicted further punishment before the break when Salah smashed home his 14th goal in 12 games this season at De Gea’s near post.
Salah then completed his hat-trick with another cool finish five minutes into the second-half after Jordan Henderson’s pass dissected the United defence once more.
Ronaldo thought he had pulled a goal back only for a VAR review to catch him in an offside position.
Another VAR check saw the end of Pogba’s brief cameo for a horrendous studs-up challenge on Keita that forced the Guinean off.
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