THE VERDICT: LIVERPOOL 3 UNITED 1 Reds shot down and damaged at Anfield
Made some decent stops to foil Fabinho before Liverpool inevitably breached United through Sadio Mane. Seconds after he sent Mohamed Salah towards Row A he let Mane give him the slip and open the scoring. A late call-up. Settled for basic defending but Xherdan Shaqiri’s goal deflected in off him. Looked like a player who had spent three weeks out. Overwhelmed by Liverpool’s intensity and pressing. Began at centre-half in a back three and moved to right-back. Acquitted himself well in both roles. Came off at half-time after a testing 45 minutes. Booked and barely threatened in attack due to Robertson’s adventure. Showed early intent to press when Liverpool had the ball but could not keep that up as defensive duties took priority. Slow with and without the ball. Could have sparked the odd counter-attack but was constantly playing backwards. Seized on Alisson’s blunder. But not enough of his teammates played with his positivity. Determined from the off and may have provided more of a threat if he had a more polished foil than Lukaku. Maybe Alisson fumbled the ball because Lukaku did something. Lost almost every duel with Van Dijk. Played amateurishly. SUBSTITUTES MAROUANE FELLAINI: (Dalot, 45) Clumsy. 4 ANTHONY MARTIAL: (Herrera, 79) Came on just before the contest ended. 5 JUAN MATA: (Lingard, 85) Did next to nothing. 5 NOT USED: Jones, Pogba, Romero, Valencia JOSE Mourinho’s decision-making in the past and present converged to inflict another damaging defeat on United.
Not many will quibble about Paul Pogba’s bench berth, but they will about why United did not deem Fabinho or Xherdan Shaqiri, major players in Liverpool’s deserved victory, as worthy recruits to enhance positions that were in need of addressing in recent summers.
Fabinho, the man of the match, was so game for a United move his wife endorsed baseless speculation surrounding a possible switch on social media. He even lauded Mourinho, who plumped for Nemanja Matic - not his first choice but one who embodies the manager; strong and stable.
Shaqiri moved to Liverpool for £13.5m in the summer and what is galling is that Mourinho eulogised the Swiss to confidants prior to his move to Liverpool in the summer.
United have not signed a right winger since Wilfried Zaha - that was concluded six years ago next month - and Shaqiri, at that fee and with that talent, was well worth the punt.
He emerged in the second half to settle a contest with two deflected goals that was needlessly close thanks to Alisson’s first-half gaffe.
Three of United’s five Premier League losses have come against the top three, though, and that gap is going to widen without enhancing a squad that has somehow become inferior to Liverpool’s within the space of under a year. Liverpool were so superior and so much more sophisticated they tallied four corners inside the first 11 minutes and David de Gea tipped two Fabinho fizzers past the post. “Like spaghetti bolognese, all over the place,” Gary Neville quipped of the United defence. Victor Lindelof, on his first appearance in three weeks, left a trail of ring rust, unsettled by Chris Smalling’s withdrawal from the XI in the warm-up that saw Eric Bailly drafted into the side. This was only the Mourinho centre-half signings’ fourth start together and they merely served as reminders why the United manager was so adamant he needed a third central defender. Yet it was Mourinho who signed Lindelof and Bailly and who has not played them in the same side frequently enough. Ashley Young clattered into Mohamed Salah in front of the approving United supporters in the Anfield Road End, yet seconds later he failed to track Sadio Mane, who killed Fabinho’s lofted pass and thrashed the ball past De Gea in the 24th minute. In a week where Alisson was the beneficiary of overrated coverage for his decisive denial against Napoli, the fawning Mane (24), Shaqiri (73, 89) Lingard (33) 64% 36% 8 2 47 13 Martin Atkinson 52, 908 None Dalot, Lukaku backfired as he fumbled and Jesse Lingard pounced to level the scores.
Warrington and Wythenshawe’s finest, Lingard and Marcus Rashford, embodied United’s idealism. Rashford despaired at an Ander Herrera hoik and Lingard could not conceal his exasperation when Matic played backwards without even looking forwards.
Matic and Romelu Lukaku - two other Mourinho additions - were more of a hindrance than a help whenever United attempted to engineer attacks.
Another United defender departed at half-time as Mourinho replaced Diogo Dalot with Marouane Fellaini and altered the formation to a more straightforward 4-3-3.
Fellaini’s selection was another snub for Pogba, who was sitting on the bench, in a game that United again lacked a con-