Manchester United caretaker boss Ralf Rangnick branded their performance "terrible" after Saturday's 4-0 defeat at Brighton.

Rangnick, in his penultimate game in charge in what has been a miserable six-month spell as interim boss after the club sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November, looked ashamed of his team at the final whistle.

"It was a terrible performance," said the German, who was not allowed to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window, while Anthony Martial and Donny van de Beek left on loan.

"From the first until the last minute it was not enough; we can only apologise for this performance and a humiliating defeat.

"We were never in a position where we could stop them playing through our lines. We told the players to be as compact as they could but we couldn't stop it.

"I don't think they ignored the gameplan but we weren't able to stop them. We gave them too much space and if you do that against a technically good team like Brighton, you will get punished."