United left annoyed and that’s progress!
UNITED will rue not winning at Liverpool, and that alone represents progress.
They left Anfield 30 points adrift of their adversaries a year ago and this goalless draw means they now remain three points clear of the champions as the Premier League approaches its halfway stage.
That will maintain the positivity that is coursing through a success-starved club.
United, reticent on recent visits to Anfield, recorded more attempts on target than Liverpool and were the more threatening in the dying embers of the game.
Liverpool were indebted to Alisson’s reflexes for maintaining their unbeaten home league stretch.
For United, it is 23 undefeated in domestic away games and, judging by the exasperated outbursts from Jurgen Klopp, there was a minor mental victory, although Liverpool are unbeaten in six at home against United now. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may oversee some one-on-one tutorials with his forwards on a day Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford reaffirmed the outstanding No.9 in the squad started on the bench.
The duo are reluctant to accept Jose Mourinho was prescient in identifying them as wingers and Edinson Cavani warmed up with assassin-like focus as soon as the second-half started.
He finally replaced Martial on the hour and the Urguguayan was an upgrade against auxiliary centre halves Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.
That might nag at Solskjaer, that United were, for lengthy periods, so blunt against Liverpool’s soft centre, although Fabinho was drawn into a cynical foul he was censured for.
The Reds last failed to score away from on January 19 of last year - at Anfield. That 2-0 defeat remains their last on the domestic road.
If ever a fixture is consistent in disappointing it is Liverpool-United, deprived of a genuine classic for upwards of two decades.
Even in a season of madcap matches, there was an inevitability English football’s greatest sides would fail to deliver a spectacle and Anfield is the eeriest of stadiums operating behind closed doors.
This was such a bloodless entrant in the history of the rivalry, United did not receive a booking until added time.
Opposition players and staff will have relished arriving to silence, rather than the pyro ‘n’ pint greetings usually reserved for the most febrile of nights on the Anfield Road.
The Albert pub was closed, there were no flares, the stadium was ring-fenced and no music was played until 40 minutes prior to kick-off.
The Anfield denizens were unable to put hands together in appreciation of the late Gerry Marsden, a Scouser deserving of an audience. The sole upside was there were no bilious exchanges.
The timing of the half-time shrill narked Klopp and Liverpool players, adamant an onside Sadio Mane had been denied a one-on-one with David de Gea when the whistle blew.
Solskjaer strode down the tunnel without breaking his stride, content United had frustrated Liverpool on the pitch and on the touchline.
For all the reservations over the undeserved recall of Victor Lindelof ahead of Eric Bailly, United were inhibited by their forwards. Their best chance created by the excellent Luke Shaw for Bruno Fernandes, for once indecisive with his connection.
Gary Neville advised in the week United would be satisfied if the game was goalless going into the final third and it is difficult to recall them taking the game to Liverpool so actively when a point was well within their reach.
The Reds did not lack in adventure, they were lacking in composure. Rashford, fortunate to stay on ahead of the impotent Martial, botched a three-ontwo and Alisson blocked from Paul Pogba at point-blank range.
Martial, shunted to the wing again, was pitted against Trent AlexanderArnold and, not for the first time, made the right-back appear sounder defensively than he is.
Alexander-Arnold had an easy ride on his full league debut at Old Trafford against Martial four years ago and history repeated itself.
The Frenchman’s positioning on the left was more of a valediction than validation, for his credentials as a centre forward in a season he has been nudged to the side by two team-mates. He should swap squad numbers with Cavani.
Fernandes’ risk-taking was so profligate and needless that Mike Phelan berated him.
Thiago Alcantara, rejected by David Moyes at United in 2013, dictated the flow with the Reds sanguine as Fred and Scott McTominay held the fort.
Pogba was United’s latest stop-gap on the right flank but outshone Thiago when the legs got heavy.
The Reds’ midweek slugfest in Burnley doubtless contributed to Liverpool’s greater intensity, enhanced by the surprising selection of Xherdan Shaqiri in their attacking quartet.
United still prevented a meaningful test of De Gea in the sixth goalless half between the sides at Anfield in the last five league meetings. His sole stop in the second was routine.
With 20 minutes left, Kieran McKenna bullishly applauded a United free-kick while Klopp carped. Fernandes clipped the ball into the arms of Alisson and the Portuguese was removed before fulltime. He will rue not winning it.