Having suffered two humiliating defeats in the two opening rounds of the Premier League season, Manchester United have finally moved off the starting line with a big win over arch-rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford on Monday evening.
Jadon Sancho’s composed finish broke the deadlock after 16 minutes and Marcus Rashford escaped an offside trap to add the second in the 53rd. As the visitors from Merseyside fought back hard from that point on, Mohamed Salah reacted quickly to pull one back seven minutes from time and became the club’s all-time record scorer in this fixture, but it proved nothing more than bleak consolation for his team.
A different United
Not many would’ve believed United capable of producing such a fine performance against Liverpool, who finished last season with both domestic cups in their bag and as runners-up in the Premier League, as well as the Champions League.
Manager Erik ten Hag, however, made some brave calls ahead of the match, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo and captain Harry Maguire both on the bench. At the back he paired up newcomer Lisandro Martinez with former Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane and put Tyrell Malacia on the left ahead of Luke Shaw. Upfront, he put Anthony Elanga on the left and moved Rashford back to the centre-forward role. With the match coming too soon for Casemiro, the club’s latest arrival, Ten Hag named Scott McTominay ahead of Fred in the middle of the park, putting the young Scotland international beside Christian Eriksen. Diogo Dalot has completely pushed out Aaron Wan-Bissaka at right-back, teaming up nicely with Sancho on that flank. Bruno Fernandes was deployed in his preferred role as the No.10.
As a result of these changes compared to the lineup that embarrassed itself at Brenford the week before, Ten Hag had a group of players on the pitch fully capable of following his tactical ideas, and they had no more difficulty in dealing with Liverpool’s main attacking threat, Salah, than they would’ve hope for. The Egyptian is never easy to mark, but Malacia and Martinez were well-prepared and did a fine job together, as did Varane and Dalot with Luis Diaz on the other flank.
The tactical idea was clear: push Liverpool high up the pitch straight away for about 20 minutes, catch them by surprise and try to force a few mistakes, then fall back and defend in numbers, and repeat the whole process after the break. It produced exactly the results Ten Hag was hoping for – the two goals his team scored came in the first and the third quarter of the match.
It’s a tried and tested approach against sides that like possession, such as Liverpool, but Ten Hag now must make sure his men are able to break through stubborn defences too if he aims to take them up towards the top. The win over Liverpool is certainly a big moment, but the Dutch coach won’t have forgotten what happened in the previous two matches.
Liverpool identity gone?
The Liverpool coaches, both Jurgen Klopp and his assistant Pep Lijnders, frequently spoke about intensity being the identity of their team. They were known for their ability to press relentlessly and efficiently, to frequently win possession high up, and if not, to defend very well and hit back through formidable transition methods.
These days, however, they simply don’t look lthike that team anymore. Several players who were integral for their success in recent years have left, most notably Georginio Wijnaldum and Sadio Mane, and though the players who have come in to fill the voids are all more than fine, they haven’t been able to produce that kind of impact as of yet. Darwin Nunez can be excused at this point, having had little time to learn the minds of his teammates and coaches and absorb the intended style. But Naby Keita and Thiago Alcantara, who are indeed capable of big performances in the middle of the park, are frequently injured and it was the case on Monday again.
A mystery in this particular match remains why Klopp chose to bench Fabinho, the only designated defensive midfielder in his ranks, and pull captain Jordan Henderson back into that role while starting James Milner further up. Young Harvey Elliott completed the midfield trio, and even though the 19-year-old tried his best, the section tasked with creating at one end and preventing any surprises at the other failed on both fronts.
In fact, Liverpool were lucky to be down just by one goal at the break having worried David De Gea in the United goal very little, though Rashford added the second soon after the restart.
It seemed a reasonable thing to do to bring on Fabinho for the second half to increase stability and allow the other two midfielders to act more offensively, but Klopp chose to wait for the hour mark to do so. By then, it was already 2-0, and even though his team quickly took control of the flow of the contest, it proved too late.
Klopp can, up to a point, be given the benefit of the doubt with Thiago, Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Curtis Jones all out of action. No coach would find it easy to deal with four first-team midfielders missing. Further more, he had no proper attacking option on the bench to shake things up, with Nunez suspended and Diogo Jota injured, and as Firmino was forced too frequently to drop even deeper than usual to help link the play up, Salah and Diaz on the flanks were left without proper infield support. On top of it all, Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate weren’t available either, which meant Joe Gomez had to step in alongside Virgil van Dijk in the heart of defence.
But some of the players in the lineup, most notably Milner, Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, can have no excuse for the mistakes they were making far too frequently, but on and off the ball, which surely frustrated Klopp and made him regret having little to bring on from the bench even more.
There’s no doubt that the Liverpool boss will be waiting anxiously for any news from the treatment room, hoping to have as many of his injured players back as soon as possible. Once they start coming back, it’s reasonable to expect Liverpool’s results to pick up significantly.
The thing is, Keita and Jones may or may not be back for the Bournemouth clash on Saturday, but none of the others stand much chance of being ready to face the Cherries at Anfield. Liverpool must find a way to grind out results in these trying circumstances or risk dropping too far behind other title contenders very quickly.
All in all, Manchester United deservedly won this match against Liverpool. It could, however, be argued that Liverpool deserved to lose even more.
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