Solskjaer admits ‘we have hit rock bottom’ after feeble United ripped apart at home by ruthless Salah

If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer survives this, then he can survive anything. This was as shambolic, humiliating, embarrassing and disgraceful as it gets for Manchester United. And it all happened at the hands of Liverpool. Enough should be enough, but such has been the faith in Solskjaer from the club’s hierarchy, such has been their blind belief that he is “the one” that he may somehow limp on before the inevitable happens.

Maybe he will quit because this job is beyond him? No, instead, he remained defiant even as he looked broken and admitted United had hit “rock bottom”.

It again leads to more questions about those making the decisions at United. If they think there is progress, then they are deluded.

Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, the three title contenders, are in a different league.

United are eight points behind leaders Chelsea after just nine games and surely, already, the best they can hope for is fourth place.

Maybe that is good enough for the Glazers, but they should have looked at Solskjaer’s face as he walked off.

He was shell-shocked. He was lost. He looked like a man drowning.

The chaos was also summed up by Paul Pogba’s gruesome cameo. The midfielder came on at half-time, gave the ball away for Liverpool’s fifth goal, and was then sent off for an ugly lunge on Naby Keita, who was carried off on a stretcher.

As Pogba left the pitch, many

United fans left the stadium. They could not face watching the last half hour with 10 men as Solskjaer substituted Bruno Fernandes, who was playing his own ill-disciplined game, and Marcus Rashford.

Jadon Sancho – the £73million summer signing – sat unused and bemused on the bench. What an unmitigated mess.

“Ole’s at the wheel” gleefully and sarcastically chanted the Liverpool fans as the United supporters were silent, bar a sliver of defiance at the Stretford End.

United are down to seventh having lost three of their past four Premier League games, drawing the other one, but this was a defeat at another level; a new low.

They were 4-0 down at half-time – which had never happened before in the Premier League era – before the irrepressible Mohamed Salah completed the first Liverpool hattrick away to United since 1936.

It was United’s biggest defeat at home to Liverpool and their biggest defeat to them since losing 7-1 in 1895 (when they were still called Newton Heath). Yes, Jurgen Klopp’s side are wonderful and can tear any opponent apart. But they did not have to play that well, even if they were ruthless in their finishing as United, who did not press, run, or work hard enough, were gone in eight minutes.

That was the time between Liverpool scoring their first goal in the fifth minute and when they added their second in the 13th minute.

Disorganised. Confused. Uncommitted. Insert any negative adjective you want and it would be no exaggeration. Poor coaching compounded by individual errors – which are probably also the result of poor coaching. There were so many vignettes and insights.

During a break in play with United losing 2-0, as James Milner went down injured before being replaced, Klopp called four Liverpool players over, led by captain Jordan Henderson, to pass on instructions. Not one United player was spoken to by Solskjaer or his assistant Mike Phelan as they stood motionless in the technical area.

United captain Harry Maguire was awful. Just awful. A detailed analysis of the first goal said it all as Maguire inexplicably left Salah and ran towards the outstanding Roberto Firmino, who was already covered by Scott Mctominay. Why?

And so Firmino could turn and slip a pass through to Salah, who was played onside by Luke Shaw, so stupidly deep in a ragged defensive line, and he had time and space to wait for Keita.

No United player tracked the midfielder and Keita easily sidefooted beyond David de Gea. From Alisson initiating the move, it was six easy passes without a United player getting close.

There was no pressure from United and a bunch of bad decisions. It was an anatomy of failure.

There were more mistakes as Liverpool scored again. This time the ball was sent in from the left and Maguire and Shaw got into another tangle – no communication, no commitment – with Keita turning it out wide right to Trent Alexanderarnold, who whipped in a cross that was guided home by Diogo Jota.

In fact, every cross led to panic in the United defence. The visitors were quicker, slicker, more cohesive and, of course, Salah was not to be denied.

He sensed weakness, he sensed goals, and after his shot was blocked, it rebounded to the unmarked Keita, who crossed with Salah just wanting it more than the lumbering Maguire.

The goal took him ahead of Didier Drogba – who scored 105 times – to become the highest scoring African player in the competition’s history, and he would claim two more.

The rabble that was United continued to embarrass themselves. On half-time, after Alisson thwarted Cristiano Ronaldo, the United forward kicked out at substitute Curtis Jones, sparking a melee. It said everything about United’s frustration, but that was as nothing as to what happened on half-time.

United just did not get close as Jota rolled in Salah, who once more had a ridiculous amount of space. And we know what that means.

The boos at half-time were fierce and prolonged. The game resumed and Pogba lost the ball on halfway and stopped, with Henderson playing a superb pass with the outside of his boot to release Salah.

Even though his first touch was heavy, he was still able to lift the ball over De Gea and, in doing so, become the first opposition player to score a hat-trick at Old Trafford since the Brazilian Ronaldo in 2003.

And that was it. It could not have been more emphatic, more comprehensive and, for United, more damning. Like a dishevelled pub team, they ended up with six yellow cards as well as a red.

It felt apt because that is what they looked like – with apologies to the Dog and Duck.