Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he has “come too far to give up now” despite overseeing Sunday’s 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool at Old Trafford.
Mohamed Salah claimed a hat-trick while Naby Keita and Diogo Jota also scored in the Reds’ dominant win.
Solskjaer said the loss is his “darkest day” as manager but will carry on.
“We know we are rock bottom, we can’t feel any worse than this. Let’s see where we take it,” he told Sky Sports.
“I have come too far, we have come too far as a group. We are too close to give up now.”
Asked how he will pick the players up, he added: “It is going to be a difficult one. The players will be low but there’s loads of characters there.”
The victory was Liverpool’s biggest win at Old Trafford in their history and set a number of unwanted landmarks as far as Manchester United are concerned.
It was their biggest loss in this fixture since October 1895, when Liverpool beat them 7-1 at Anfield, and was the first time they have lost by a margin of five or more goals at Old Trafford without scoring themselves since 1955.
Many Manchester United fans left at half time with the home side 4-0 down.
Their team conceded only once more after the break but also had Paul Pogba sent off just 15 minutes after he had come on as a substitute.
Manchester United trailed 4-0 at half-time – the first time they have trailed by four goals after the first half of a Premier League match.
“It is not easy to say something apart from it is the darkest day I have had leading these players,” added Solskjaer, who took over as manager in 2018.
“We were not good enough individually and as a team – you can’t give a team like Liverpool those chances, but unfortunately we did.
“The whole performance was not good enough. We created openings, they had chances and they have been clinical. The third goal decided the game.”
Manchester United captain Harry Maguire apologised to the club’s fans and said the players would have to look at themselves for the manner of the defeat.
“It hurts. The boys are devastated, it is not good enough, nowhere near good enough,” he told BBC Sport.
“I am not here to analyse the game. It is not good enough. Our fans stuck with us throughout. We apologise to them, they deserve more. We have to move on and we have to improve.
“At the moment I am hurt, disappointed, I am looking at myself, every player should do. Every player has to look at themselves because to lose that game in the way we did is nowhere near good enough.”
