Marcus Rashford said on Monday that Manchester United must not let their 7-0 Premier League defeat by Liverpool define their season and urged his team-mates to “unite”.
A week after winning the League Cup to end their six-year wait for silverware, United head to Merseyside on Sunday confident with talk of a potential quadruple.
But their faint Premier League title hopes vanished in the Anfield elimination, which matched their heaviest of defeats.
Manager Erik ten Hag called the performance, in which United conceded six goals in a terrible second half display, “unprofessional”.
Rashford, United’s top scorer this season, said he was eager to get back on the pitch to put an end to the result.
“Hopefully we can play the game today to try and do it right,” tweeted the 25-year-old. “The result is the result, and we can’t see past it!
“We have to not let it define our season. We have to trust the process and stick together.
Goalkeeper David de Gea described the result as “disastrous”, urging his players to look forward, with their Europa League clash against Real Betis on Thursday.
“This is a dangerous moment for us and this result should not have happened, especially with the journey we are on,” he tweeted.
“We have an obligation to this club, a responsibility to represent the badge, but we have many opportunities to look ahead, many games are coming quickly and we have to lock our focus on this.”
England defender Luke Shaw said the performance was “unacceptable” and “shameful” and apologized to the club’s fans.
He said he felt standards had dropped in the days since United won the League Cup at Wembley by beating Newcastle in the final.
“We have to find the good things we’ve done before and bring them back because this is very painful,” he told MUTV.
“It’s unacceptable what we did in the second half with the mistakes.
“We didn’t show our personality, we didn’t show our mentality and a big team came here, we have to do better.”
The 27-year-old added: “We can’t let this one result ruin the whole season because I think we’re in a really good place.”