Football News: Liverpool vs Manchester United Overview

This game was being built up as a cakewalk for Liverpool and, in fairness, for good reason. United were in a bad run of form, had crashed out of Europe, and had a mounting injury list. The previous meeting between these sides at Anfield was that now famous 7-0 drubbing, so fans were dreaming of a repeat. Personally I never take points for granted against Manchester United or Everton, because these derbies are local and fierce, and you never know how that will affect the on pitch action. As it was United were ultra-defensive for the most part and it felt like Liverpool were playing against relegation candidates scrapping for a point. It is testament to either the fear Liverpool have instilled in other teams, or the pressure Ten Hag was feeling, but it meant this was a one-sided affair from first whistle to last.

Manchester United

They sat deep, very deep, packed the center, and made life difficult for Liverpool. They had maybe 3 passages of dangerous play the entire game: Alexander-Arnold took the ball off Garnacho at the last second in the first, Alisson saved well from Hojlund in the second, and Rashford fizzed a dangerous low cross into the box that was cleared, but that was pretty much everything United offered. I would probably pick Varane as their man of the match and he was very good, I do not think a clean sheet would have been forthcoming if he did not play. I think Mainoo looked very assured in midfield as well, United look like they have a good young talent there. It is difficult to assess a teams quality when they play so negatively and passively but, to their credit, and to fault Liverpool, there were never enough clear chances to truly worry them. It is a successful result for United as they came with a game plan to stifle Liverpool and it worked. Nunez, Salah and Diaz never had the space in behind to run into and that neutralised a lot of the threats they can pose. I think United fans will be content with this score but that is a testament to how far they have fallen, and how much lower they have set the bar for themselves.

Liverpool

An extremely one-sided performance in which they enjoyed the lions share of possession, the lions share of chances, but whose mouse-like meekness in the final third meant they never did enough with it. Onana made some decent, but what I would call expected, saves. Given how jittery his form has been, it was surprising that he was not tested more. Tactically I think we had everything reasonably correct. We dominated possession and gave up very few chances, but individual decision-making was wrong more often than it was right. This meant promising attacks tended to peter out rather than produce a clear scoring opportunity, and that sums up Liverpool in this game. The wrong decisions at the wrong time cost Liverpool momentum and disrupted the attacking play, and this meant they did not make full use of their dominance. A lot of fans are talking about this result as some sort of catastrophe - for me these results against the bigger teams are always possible. I am neither delighted nor despondent, we will (and in fact already have) play worse and win games, hopefully we will convert more games like this to wins as the season goes on. I do think the inverted fullback system is wasted against teams sitting deep - width is what opens and stretches teams, and the inverted fullback system makes everything narrower. I would also like to know why we seem to exclusively deliver outswinging corners? Onana looked really flappy and unsure of himself, but the numerous corners we had never really asked him any serious questions. That was a strategic error in my opinion.

Player ratings

Alisson - 7 - quiet game but, when he needed to spring into action, was fully alert and made a good save. The sign of a top class goalkeeper which he certainly is.

Tsimikas - 6.5 - a decent game, had Anthony in his back pocket when one-on-one, but did get caught up the pitch trying to provide width. Looked noticeably fatigued towards the end but he played well overall. Wish his deliveries were a bit more consistent as when they are good they are very good.

TAA - 6 - he does have an excellent range of passing, good shooting technique, similar tools to Gerrard, I just wish he would stop trying to thread the needle so damn often. There were times when we were building pressure and he tried a really, really difficult pass which just ended the attack. Needs to pick his moments. Went close to scoring, but his deliveries were inconsistent, not his best game.

VVD - 7 - dominated everything in the air, passed the ball well, gave United very, very little to work with. Rock solid.

Konate - 7 - strong, powerful, and his distribution was good. Again gave United little to work with and put in a solid performance.

Endo - 7.5 - noticeably tired by the end, leading to a few poor passes, but overall I thought he was excellent. Broke up their attacks multiple times, won second balls continuously, made himself available for the pass, played a big part in our control of the game.

Szoboszlai - 4 - a really poor showing from him he seemed off it from the first minute. Poor passes, sloppy passes, lost possession multiple times, and had a few really poor shots. In a bit of a slump form wise.

Gravenbirch - 6.5 - started slowly and looked a bit out of touch first half. Came into it more and more second half and started to play more assertively and confidently. Actually looked like he might make the difference until he got injured which was a shame.

Diaz - 6.5 - it it not quite clicking for him but no one could accuse him of not trying. Ran himself into the ground and was dropping very deep just to pick the ball up. When he ran at them he looked dangerous and he tried to pass the ball off into dangerous areas, unfortunately his teammates did not use the ball effectively when he did so.

Salah - 5 - his poorest game for a long time. It wasn't so much that he couldn't beat a man, it was that he took on poor shots multiple times when he had teammates in better positions. He can sometimes be too selfish which doesn't matter if he scores, but he did not really test Onana with any of his shots.

Nunez - 3 - woeful game from him, lost count of the number of times he was offside, his link up play and passing was off the boil, he did not really have a single shot of note, and United seemed to deal with him easily. For me there are far too many inconsistencies in his game, has to do better.

Subs

Gomez - 6.5 - played well, did not allow Rashford much when he came on, and provided an outlet on the right. Seems to suit the right back position.

Gakpo - 3 - really, really poor he did not link up well, he took on shots he should not have taken on, he missed a really good, headed chance at the death. He is trying to hard at the moment and it is not coming off for him. Needs to do better.

Elliott - 5 - did not do much to be honest. He did not play badly, but he did not impact the game either. The congested nature of the midfield in this game made it hard for him to produce something. Might have been different if he could have taken up Salah's position on the right.

Jones - 5.5 - marginally better than Elliott, did manage to link up a bit more effectively, however never really made a telling impact.

Klopp - when you dominate a game like that it is difficult to criticise the tactical approach. What I would say is that the inverted fullback nonsense meant, until Gomez came on, meant we were narrow and lacking wide outlets again. It was not until Gomez came on that we had some clearer chances on goal, which I think was down to having clear width on both sides of the pitch. This is not the first time we have struggled breaking teams down, when will the manager realise the inverted fullback system is a hindrance rather than a help in these sorts of games? The inverted fullback system is the only real criticism I can make though, everything else was pretty much correct from a management perspective.

Officials

For the most part even-handed and fair though I thought Dalot's red card was laughably soft. I get the rationale, dissent twice in very quick succession, but Oliver just needs to use a bit of common sense. It's a big game, the player feels wronged, he gets emotional, I thought a single yellow card would have been more than fair. Also worth noting that Shaw did handle the ball in the box, with his arms out from his body. Seen plenty of those given, by the current letters of the law and precedents in officiating it should be a penalty. I am glad it wasn't as I hate those sort of handball decisions, but I hope when this happens against City we see the same sort of consistency. Wishful thinking I know.

Conclusions

A dominant performance without the desired result. I think individual performances and decision-making at crucial times had a significant impact on the game and stopped us turning our domination into 3 points. United were passive and defensive, but their game plan worked because they got what they came for at Anfield. I'm not sure I'd be as happy as United fans were with such negativity but perhaps it is a sign of the times. The team looks a bit mentally fatigued at the minute so we really need players to dig deep and find form. Shame Gravenbirch picked an injury up as he looked like he was slowly getting up to speed. As a result not ideal but hardly disastrous, The Arsenal game will be huge though and require much higher levels from the players to get a result.

Written by Seano_ December 18 2023 09:38:20