RED ARROWS SKEWER UNITED
Liverpool top of the league after completing United demolition job
THE scoreline was not as emphatic as that which nudged Ole Gunnar Solskjaer towards the exit door back in October but if anything the gulf between these two appears to have widened.
Victory here was enough to see Liverpool ease themselves back to the summit of the Premier League for at least another 24 hours.
But it came at the expense of a United side disorganised, dispirited and looking for all the world as if they cannot wait for this miserable season to end.
Goals from Luis Diaz and Mo Salah did the early damage as United were put to the sword in a one-sided first half. And while the rejigged visitors competed marginally better in the second period, by the time Sadio Mane added a third and Salah his second in the second half, United were flattened and humiliated.
Amazingly, United remain just three points off the final Champions League spot but if Erik ten Hag and his representatives were watching last night they might be advised not to be putting too much money in bonus payments.
For the first time during his tenure at United, Ralf Rangnick lined up with three at the back, drafting in Phil Jones for his first start since early January, as an extra layer of security.
It was a plan which worked for precisely five minutes, Liverpool sweeping up the field with their first meaningful attack to take the lead when Diaz turned in Salah’s square pass after the Egyptian was set free down the right by Mane.
Five minutes later United were forced to redesign their plan again when Paul Pogba limped off injured to be replaced by Jesse Lingard.
Perhaps the France international had seen which
way the wind was blowing already. In the 22nd minute Liverpool doubled their lead with a goal of such quality that you begun to fear for the visitors.
Joel Matip was involved twice in the build-up but his pass into Mane on the edge of the box prefaced two sublime touches, the Senegal forward hooking the ball first time with an exquisite pass into the path of Salah. After a right-foot touch, Salah’s left-foot finish clipped the ball inside David De Gea’s far post.
United looked vulnerable every time Liverpool had the ball, their three-man back line unsure how to pick up the movement of their front three. They may as well have been trying to mark the Red Arrows.
On the touchline both managers stood hands clasped behind their backs, inscrutable in their technical areas, but Rangnick’s head must have been spinning at the end of a half in which his side had just 22 percent possession, one corner and not a single shot.
If one moment summed it up, it came as the teams waited at the start of the second half for referee Martin Atkinson to sort out his communication equipment. With both teams knocking a football between them, the Kop greeted every United pass with an ‘Ole’.
United switched to a back four – Jadon Sancho replacing Jones – when play resumed and for a while they appeared more comfortable.
But in the 68th minute Diaz smuggled the ball to Mane, who swept the ball in from 15 yards.
And Salah moved them four clear, pouncing on Diogo Jota’s through-ball and chipping De Gea five minutes from time.