Great rivals Man Utd and Liverpool played out an intriguing stalemate at Old Trafford that has potential serious ramifications not particularly in the title race.
United came off of the back of a disappointing late defeat at Chelsea, a game which was before a late goal at Brentford saw the Bees get a point when it seemed like MUFC were on for the win.
LFC were on a good run of their own which saw them get a 3–1 win over Sheffield Utd in their last game putting them back on top of the table.
There was one clear favourite heading into this match.
Erik ten Hag’s team did start off quite brightly much like they did in the FA Cup quarter final. However, the away team did have their opportunities as the first 15 minutes was very end-to-end.
United thought they opened the scoring through Alejandro Garnacho but he was just offside before Andre Onana was called into a great save by Domink Szoboszlai at the other end.
Eventually though, as we’ve seen a lot this campaign, the Red Devils lose focus and the opposition takes advantage.
Poor marking from a corner by the home team saw Darwin Nunez get a free header which he flicked on and found Luis Diaz free at the back post. He put the ball in the net and gave Liverpool a 1–0 lead.
They then took control from there and really should’ve punished United.
There were a lot of similarities to that FA Cup match with one being Liverpool wasting several good chances to put the game to bed. In the first half alone, Klopp’s team had 14 shots compared to United’s 0.
Chance after chance went abegging to Jurgen Klopp’s frustration with his thoughts probably going back three weeks to when his side were wasteful the last time they traveled to Old Trafford and we all saw how that ended.
He would’ve been worried that lightning could strike twice.
If he had those suspicions, he was correct.
5 minutes into the second half, catastrophe for LFC.
A poor giveaway by young defender Jarell Quansah ended up being the perfect layoff for Bruno Fernandes as he saw goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher off his line and decided to hit it first time from just inside his own half.
It went in and brought United back to life.
Liverpool weren’t themselves after that as they didn’t have quite the control and domination they had in the first half. Some decent chances but nothing clear cut.
17 minutes after Bruno’s equalizer, Kobbie Mainoo produced a second moment of brilliance and channeled his inner Kiko Macheda as the youngster curled in a shot from the edge of the box that the goalkeeper was never going to reach reminiscent of that strike against Villa in 2009. That was his first goal at Old Trafford. What a time to get it.
2–1 United, two moments of brilliance. Moments FC strikes again.
But a test with this United side is trying to keep those leads heading into the final minutes of the game. As we saw in our last two games alone, we have the ability to drop off, lose concentration and giveaway silly goals to throw away all the hard work that had been done.
As lightning struck twice for Liverpool, so it did for United.
In the final 10, Wan-Bissaka goes down for a tackle inside the box, doesn’t get the ball and while one could say that there was minimal contact, he was nowhere near the ball and subsequently brought down Harvey Elliott.
Salah does the rest and LFC are back in it.
To be honest though, they nor United created too much of note that would get either the win. Luis Diaz came close with a chance late on but that was it.
Game over and a positive point gained for ten Hag. However, the Dutchman will once again be disappointed with his players throwing away 3 points. That is now three in three where United have done this. Had we been able to hold on, that is 7 more points which would put us on 56 and 5 behind Spurs and in the race for Champions League football.
Half his side was also lacking quite a bit and mainly his senior pros.
Casemiro looks like his mind is elsewhere, Rashford was too out of the game and while he did score a great and important goal, Bruno Fernandes had another flat performance. Neither of these showed any leadership as well.
Converse to that, the manager will be proud that his youngsters were great. Willy Kambwala made just his second senior start and was a contender for MOTM, Kobbie Mainoo was good and got a brilliant goal and Alejandro Garnacho was always a nuisance whenever he got the ball. A pity we didn’t get it to him often enough.
His side were also very hot and cold which isn’t ideal. Good first 15 minutes, poor until Bruno’s goal. Good thereafter but then give it away.
That sort of inconsistency is unacceptable resulting in us being in the position we’re in.
But was it a job-saving performance and result? Many were saying how important these three games were and that defeat against LFC could spell ten Hag’s end. While he has avoided defeat in this match and only lost one of these last three, 2 points from 9 is absolutely not good enough when you could argue we should’ve gotten all 9.
The next match could be super important for him.
Ratings:
Onana — 6
Dalot — 6.5
Maguire — 6.5
Kambwala — 7 MOTM
AWB — 4
Casemiro — 3
Mainoo — 6
Garnacho — 6
Bruno — 5
Rashford — 5
Hojlund — 5
Antony — 6
Amrabat — 6
Mount — 6
Erik ten hag — 6
Final Thoughts
A better result than I expected but in the main, not a performance to get your hopes up.
Liverpool really shot themselves in the foot again by not making the most of their chances. That was a surprise as many would’ve thought that they would’ve learned from their FA Cup loss.
Perhaps they fell into our trap of being so crap they could take it easy? That was our game plan all along, wasn’t it 😄? Yes, I can see it now. Lure them in only to hit them with the sucker punch 👌😅.
Erik ten Hag you bloody genius. My manager is playing 4D chess 👏.
But in all seriousness, happy with a point and derailing their title charge, but why do we keep giving up these late leads? So frustrating.
Background image via Bruno Fernandes official X (@B_Fernandes8)