Manchester United’s ace Paul Pogba accepts players turned in a “disrespectful” performance during the miserable defeat at Everton.
United have been widely criticised in the wake of the 4-0 loss which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer apologised for and Gary Neville labelled “rancid”.
Pogba admits he and his team-mates let the club down.
“I wish I knew,” he told Sky Sports when asked what went wrong. “It was the details, the desire, we spoke about courage and everything we had when the manager came.
“What we had there, it was just like another team and this is not good. It is not good for Man Utd, for the story of the club or for the fans. It is not good at all what we did. Losing a game is something really bad that we don’t want to when we are in the race for the top four and losing 4-0 as well.
“Not to be disrespectful and I am not disrespectful on Everton, but the way we played and the performance of myself, of the team, of everyone is disrespectful. We didn’t respect ourselves, the club or the fans.
“Sometimes, you try to give everything but nothing comes with it. You keep trying, you might lose some balls that you might not lose, you lose some challenges that you win, and most of the time we would create chances that we would score but we missed.
“Everything went wrong but the most important thing is the mentality that we put on the pitch – that has to change. Now it is in the past and we cannot stay on the past because it is a headache. You have to think about the next game and do better.
“[In the dressing room after the game] we let the manager speak, the staff speak and they spoke the truth. They said what happened in the game and it is not respectful for ourselves.
“What we did on the pitch is not respectful for the team-mates, for the staff, for the people, for the kitman, for everyone. For their work, they put their life on us, the team and this club. What we showed on the pitch, we did not give them the joy back and that’s why we are angry with ourselves. We want to do better for sure and we have to. The reaction has to be there.”
Pogba’s first chance to make amends comes in Wednesday night’s Manchester derby against a City side going in search of a domestic Treble.
He added: “I want to say, and I know it may not be enough, but the fans want a reaction from the players and the only way to apologise to them is to give everything on the pitch, do our best, create chances, score goals, defend, work for the team and we can even lose games, but with a good performance and pride on the pitch.
“That’s how we should apologise to the fans, just to give everything for us, for the club, for the shirt, for the team-mates and for ourselves as well because it is us on the pitch and we cannot perform like we did.
“What I understood on this is when you wear this shirt at this club it is, first of all, because you deserve it, but when you deserve it, you have to work and respect the culture, the history of this club and give everything on the pitch.
“I don’t want to be harsh with my words but we don’t want to look like we did yesterday because the body language was not good enough for this shirt. When you’re here, you deserve it and you have to give your life on the pitch. You have to work, you have to sweat for this shirt and you have to give everything.
“The key thing is to go back to the basics. It is really simple, but it is really hard because the basic things are working for your team-mates, stay in your position, defend, don’t let the player cross, win the second ball – those things, we don’t really talk about this, but they are details that make the difference in a game. You go for it and you go for scoring a goal, not just to cross the ball. Those things like that are just basics but they are so important.”