Manchester United fell to a 7-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool in what was a disastrous evening for the Red Devils.
Goals from Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Roberto Firmino were enough to complete one of United’s most embarrassing downfalls in the modern era.
One thing that stood out from the team’s calamitous showing was a lack of work rate, pressing and closing down.
According to The Daily Mail’s Lewis Steele, United’s players ran a combined 99.01km against Jurgen Klopp’s men.
To put this into context, this distance is the team’s lowest since the 4-0 drubbing at the City Ground by Brentford earlier in the season.
Manchester United players ran 99.01km between them against Liverpool, their lowest since the 4-0 thrashing to Brentford in August, where Erik Ten Hag infamously punished them with a 14km run the next training session
— Lewis Steele (@LewisSteele_) March 6, 2023
After that Brentford debacle, manager Erik ten Hag punished the players by making them run the difference in distance covered between themselves and Brentford’s stars. Ten Hag himself took part in the exercise.
Since then, there has been a remarkable improvement in United’s work rate and intensity up until yesterday at Anfield.
The lack of drive and motivation is something Ten Hag took issue with during his post-match comments.
The United boss described his team’s showing as “unprofessional.”
He said, “You can lose a game but not in this way. The second half is unprofessional, it can’t happen. We have to talk about it.
“It was not about one or two players, it was the whole team. I saw 11 individuals losing their heads, not sticking to the plan. That is unprofessional and that is not Manchester United.”
“That is not Manchester United, we have higher standards.”