Shaw says Solskjaer is NOT to blame for Man United's woe in Liverpool loss

Luke Shaw has come to the staunch defence of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and insists he and his Manchester United team-mates are to blame for their current malaise.

The Red Devils suffered their third defeat of the Premier League season after a Mohamed Salah hat-trick inspired Liverpool to a thumping 5-0 win at Old Trafford.

The humiliating result - which leaves United seventh in the table and without a top-flight victory since 19 September - further increased the pressure on United's Norwegian boss, with his side opened up at will by Jurgen Klopp's men, who scored four of their goals in the first half.

Naby Keita's opener saw Shaw exposed to a three-on-one situation, before a mix-up with centre-back Harry Maguire led to Diogo Jota's tap-in eight minutes later.

And England left-back Shaw insists it is for those reasons the criticism should be levelled at his performance and that of his team-mates, insisting they were 'too easy to play through'.

Asked about his thoughts on the game, Shaw told Stadium Astro: 'Not good enough. I know of course this is a team sport but as individuals we need to be accountable for some of the performances.

'That's why I'm out here now, I'm not hiding in there and not speaking, I've come out and I will say I was not good enough. I speak on behalf of myself, not the team.

'I am accountable for my performance, it wasn't good enough. I am not here to speak about the team, we know we can be better but for me I also need to be better than I was today.

'That's why I have come here, speaking to you, and tell you how it is. It's ourselves we need to look at first and foremost in the mirror. Are we doing everything right and preparing right for the games and ourselves?

'We have the tactics and how the manager wants us to play. At times, we're too easy to play through against.

'You look at the first goal, it can't be possible that they can have three running through in the first five minutes. We need to be more compact, we need to be better.'

The result came just a few days after United came from 2-0 down against Atalanta to win 3-2 at Old Trafford, with Cristiano Ronaldo netting yet another winner.

The Portuguese repeated the heroics against Villarreal last month in midweek against the Italian side, but Shaw hinted the dressing room knew they had not been at their best in those games

'This result was coming. In past games where we've won, we haven't been at our best. We felt that inside the dressing room and today we have to reflect and we have to move on from this because it hurts.

'I think we all know when we're at our best we're capable of playing well. It's not just a team, it's individuals who are not at their best. Me, myself, I'm not. I need to look at myself, see what I'm doing wrong and focus on that.

'At times in the game, we're far too easy to play through against, not just today but it's been a number of games now where it's been happening bit by bit and we can feel that in each game.

'It happened today and, against a great team like Liverpool, they're going to punish us and they did.'