The six ways Erik ten Hag has punished his Man Utd players after their Liverpool humiliation

Erik ten Hag has punished his Manchester United players in six different ways after the Old Trafford club were demolished 7-0 by bitter rivals Liverpool.

On Sunday Liverpool stunned the football world by subjecting an in-form United side to their heaviest defeat since Boxing Day 1931.

Indeed, the fact that United went into the encounter on an 11-game unbeaten run, and emboldened by having won their first trophy in six years just seven days prior will make the result harder to process.

Former United captain Gary Neville labelled the performance an "absolute disgrace, a shambles" while the famously curmudgeon Roy Keane said the senior players "didn't show any leadership skills" and the team as a whole would be "ashamed of their performance".

United manager Ten Hag has since punished his players in six different ways.

Press conference criticism

Ten Hag laid into his players in his press conference, slating them for failing to "fulfil their jobs" and "stick together" during their astonishing Liverpool capitulation.

The Dutchman said: "It was a real surprise to me after halftime so quickly gave the game away. First two goals were two defensive transition moments, the first was a turnover, the second was a counter. 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."

Made Man Utd players sit in silence

The Mirror claim Ten Hag made his humiliated players sit in silence in the dressing room after the game, to listen in to Liverpool’s jubilant celebrations.

Indeed, the 53-year-old allegedly told his players to use it as motivation to ensure they never implode as they did in the second half again.

The ‘hairdryer treatment'

SunSport claim Ten Hag was the angriest he’s ever been” following the humiliation to Liverpool.

According to the report no player was spared in a “full hairdryer treatment” that lasted several minutes.

The Dutchman is said to have stressed that the Old Trafford club must learn from the performance and do a lot better in future.

Threatened to send players to the reserves

According to the Mirror, Ten Hag ripped into his underperforming team and told them they were lucky to be heading back to Manchester on the team bus rather than with the fans, who paid their hard-earned money to watch the capitulation.

Moreover, the report claimed the United manager threatened to send first-team players to the under-21 side should they repeat the performance.

A source told The Mirror: "Ten Hag was obviously furious and told them they were lucky to be getting on the team bus back to Old Trafford and not made to travel back with the fans.

“He warned them all that if anything like that happens again, there won’t be another chance for them and they’ll be put in the Under-21s.”

Liverpool scored six second half goals (Alamy)

Ten Hag made players report for training the next day at 9am

According to the Mail Online, Ten Hag made the United squad arrive at Carrington at 9am on Monday, having himself arrived for training two hours prior.

The Dutchman then allegedly told his players that the performance should not destroy their good work for the season and that they should be “hungry” to put things right.

Ten Hag showed players clips from the game

The same Mail Online report claimed that while Ten Hag opted against showing the players a replay of the match, he did show them selected clips to “make them angry”.

The United boss also allegedly believes his players would benefit from extra sessions with Dutch sports psychologist Rainier Koers, who was brought in by Ten Hag after his appointment.