Barnsley boss points finger at players for spoiling his big day out following Manchester United thrashing

Barnsley manager Darrell Clarke expressed his disappointment and frustration with his players following their humiliating 7-0 defeat against Manchester United on Tuesday night. Clarke described the result as a devastating blow to what could have been a memorable evening for him and the team.

The Red Devils blew away their League One opponents at Old Trafford, with Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Christian Eriksen all scoring twice and Antony winning and then converting a penalty.

The South Yorkshire side were pretty competitive over the first 30 minutes and looked to pose some threat down their right flank, but their defending was extremely poor.

There was certainly room for criticism for the way Barnsley were set-up in the first place, but Clarke made it clear he thought his players were to blame for the disastrous night.

‘I have had a go at them. I wasn’t happy with the performance, I know we have come to Man United, who have world class players, but I wasn’t happy with how we played,’ he said, via the Barnsley Chronicle.

‘Mael (de Gevigney) was the only player who comes out with credit. Did the occasion get to some of them? Yes probably. We have to understand what it takes to be a top player.

‘Don’t ever let me hear one of them talking about how bad some Premier League players are. They are miles off. The players were miles off the standards of a top Barnsley player tonight never mind a top Premier League player.

‘It was proud night for myself but it’s been ruined by the performance.

‘Some of the mistakes for the goals, I didn’t recognise. We were a mile off. My biggest fear was that we wouldn’t do ourselves justice and I don’t think we did.’

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag recognised that things were not all going their way early on, but was delighted with how his side improved and pounced on Barnsley’s multiple mistakes.

‘First of all, it was a difficult start but, once we found the shape, it’s not so weird because it’s the first time this team is playing together,’ he said. ‘But once we found the shape and the patterns, we scored some great goals, starting with [Marcus] Rashford which was a brilliant goal but I’d also say some other goals were really good.

‘We played with a lot of speed and we were very ruthless in front of the goal.’

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