Manchester United captain Harry Maguire insists everyone has "huge respect" for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer amid criticism they were no longer playing for the manager.
The Norwegian coach was sacked on Sunday after the team's embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road less than 24 hours earlier.
United have won just one of their last seven Premier League games to slip to eighth in the table, 12 points behind leaders Chelsea.
Speaking after the defeat, former England captains Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer slammed Solskjaer's players for their work rate against the Hornets.
"Could the players have done more? 100 per cent," said United legend and current Derby manager Rooney.
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"I was so disappointed watching that game at Watford. As a manager you know you can set the team up, prepare, shape them but there is no excuse for some of them performances. None at all."
Shearer added: "They've stopped running for the manager. They’ve stopped playing for the manager and when you have a player coming out saying they don’t know what to do, well that is the manager.
"But the players can go out and have effort and attitude so that tells you what they think of the manager. That’s not the first time we’ve seen players stop running for the manager and it won’t be the last time."
But Maguire, who was sent off in United's defeat to Watford, insists the players respect Solskjaer and are determined to beat Villarreal in Tuesday's Champions League clash.
"We had so much respect for the boss. We've been on a journey together. For him to come and speak to us, it was difficult to be in.
"But that showed how much we wanted to succeed. We were in this together. Ultimately the manager has paid the price and we take huge responsibility.
"We know we haven't been good enough. We need to get this club back to where it was. The recent performances haven't been good enough.
"The manager spoke to us, it was an emotional day. Everyone has huge respect for Ole and he will remain a legend of the club.
"I won't go into too much depth, but he wished us well and said we need to get back on track. We haven't been delivering collectively and the results pay the price.
"It's snowballed from one thing to another. We've got to find something within ourselves. To find that focus to go and get a result that we need."
