Shabby United undressed by stylish Reds
Quality in Red Devils’ dressing-room has been on the drip for years
THE THIRD goal was important because it enabled us to see the real picture, the stark contrast between these two great clubs. A 2-1 scoreline would have suggested a narrowness and that would have been quite wrong.
Manchester United have previously got away with it at Anfield twice under Jose Mourinho. They had come to Liverpool, showed no ambition, sat deep and prayed for intervention from their best player, goalkeeper David de Gea.
Twice they went home with a 0-0. Pride intact. Job done, if you like that kind of thing. On Sunday, they were undressed by a Liverpool team playing a kind of football with which no team managed by Mourinho will ever again be familiar. Liverpool virtually scored United’s goal for them, but still eased away from their great rivals in the second half.
This was not the worst United performance on Merseyside since Sir Alex Ferguson stood down five and a half years ago. No, that came when Louis van Gaal brought United to Anfield in the Europa League. United lost 2-0 that night and it could have been five.
That game was two and a half years ago and indicates how long ago it was that the rot set in at Old Trafford. What United’s loyal band of travelling supporters witnessed on Sunday was not just Mourinho’s fault. The quality in the Red Devils dressing-room has been on the drip for years.
United are now closer to the bottom of the Premier League than the top and 11 points off the top four. As journalist Geoff Shreeves said in his post-match Sky Sports interview with Mourinho: ‘This is broken.” Nobody could have put it better.
In terms of Sunday’s game and how it went, the tone was set from the get-go and an incident in the 10th minute told us that. United midfielder Nemanja Matic received the ball 15 yards outside his own penalty area and looked up. Within a second, he was on his backside and Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino was away with the football.
Matic looked shell-shocked, wideeyed like the victim of a mugging. But what did he expect? Had he and his teammates not been made aware of how Liverpool play early on in games? At Anfield, you don’t get time to pause for breath. Soon after, Romelu Lukaku was bullied off the ball by Virgil van Dijk then Fabinho played a ball over the top for Sadio Mane on the gallop and Liverpool were ahead. Once again it was impossible not to wonder about United’s preparation. That goal came from a move that Liverpool play constantly. It is a stock in trade and the only people in the stadium who didn’t recognise it in thought, vision and execution were those in dark blue.
So not for the first time this season, it was tempting to wonder what happens at United on a daily basis. Few managers are as traditionally adept as Mourinho at setting up a team for a bespoke performance against a particular opponent, but this was a United side seemingly unprepared for what was waiting.
Beforehand there was talk on Sky about the attitude of some United players. Jesse Lingard was singled out by Graeme Souness and Roy Keane for choosing last week to launch his own clothing brand. That made for some nice soundbites, but it also felt unfair. There is nothing wrong with players having an outside interest. This is not why United are in the gutter.
George Best owned a boutique in Manchester in the 1960s and that is remembered as part of his charm. Yet United didn’t win every game Best played in, did they?
The truth is that Lingard is one of the few United players to have emerged from the stagnation of the last 18 months with reputation intact. Lingard could play for Liverpool, both in terms of talent and application.
How many other United players could really say that?
It was actually Lingard’s goal that gave United some hope on Sunday. It gave the scoreline a surreal feel. But the tide subsequently swept only one way and it was always likely this poor United side would be washed aside.
Near the end, United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was pictured in worried conversation with Sir Bobby Charlton. During that Europa League game in March 2016, it was Woodward and Sir Alex Ferguson who were caught in similarly earnest debate. It was not hard to work out what was being said then and it is not hard to work out what is being said now. Van Gaal, we recall, was gone at the end of the season. |