Barnsley boss threatens to slap players if he hears one thing after Man Utd thrashing

Barnsley boss Darrell Clarke threatened to SLAP his flops in the aftermath of their Manchester United thrashing.

The League One side travelled to Old Trafford in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening. But it was not to be on a night to forget for Clarke's charges.

They slumped to a dismal 7-0 thrashing at the hands of the Red Devils in what was the biggest win of the Erik ten Hag era so far. Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Christian Eriksen all scored braces, with Brazilian winger Antony also finding the net.

Clarke was furious with his side’s display and said it should come as a huge wake-up call to how far they are away from the top level. Speaking to Sky Sports, the Barnsley boss said: “Listen, they’re a quality team but we’re very disappointed in our performance. We haven’t done ourselves justice - that was my fear tonight coming here.

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“A lot of my players had an off day. Probably one player, Mael [de Gevigney] probably comes out of the game with credit. But not an acceptable performance from us.

“I know it’s a big occasion against a very, very good team, I get that. They turn it on against Premier League teams but it’s a huge wake up call for me to the players to understand what it takes to be a top, top, top player.

“If I ever hear one of my players tell me Premier League players when they’re watching a game and they’re saying they’re poor, I’ll be giving them a slap because they’re miles off, we were miles off against a team that can absolutely destroy you when you’re not at it.”

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It was a different story for a delighted Ten Hag who praised his side's ruthless edge after the most emphatic victory of his reign.

He said: “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. 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.”

Ten Hag added: “The key was finding the shape and, of course, the right attitude. We were 100 per cent concentrated and we certainly played very good. I think it was enjoyable to watch and also the fans they liked it and appreciated it. You could feel again the good bond between the team and the fans and we gave the fans some nice goals.”

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