Neither side came into what is the biggest fixture in English football in good form, with both teams still yet to get a win this season.
Erik ten Hag made four changes to the team that embarrassed themselves against Brentford, with Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Fred and Cristiano Ronaldo replaced by Raphaël Varane, Tyrell Malacia, Scott McTominay and Anthony Elanga. Manchester United lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
Jürgen Klopp made three changes to the side that drew against Crystal Palace, as Nathaniel Phillips, Fabinho and the suspended Darwin Nuñez were replaced by Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
United started as the much better team. They would press Liverpool up the pitch, with Marcus Rashford picking up one of the centre-backs while Bruno Fernandes stayed back on Henderson. A winger would move up to pick up the Liverpool full-back closest to the man in possession, whereas the other would step up to pick up the other centre-back – this would leave the furthest full-back free, however given he was further away, it was harder for Liverpool to reach him.
United didn’t even press particularly intensely, but this strategy still worked, because, despite United having a famously abysmal midfield, it was still better than what Liverpool could muster. Liverpool would have a man drop in next to Henderson to play around Fernandes, but neither of the other midfielders were up to the task: even when he wasn’t ready for retirement, Milner wasn’t good at progressing the ball through the middle, while Harvey Elliott is a teenage attacking midfielder played out of position. As a result it was left to attacker Firmino to come all the way back to the base of the midfield for Liverpool to progress the ball.
This left no one in attack to progress the ball to though. Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz were both playing very wide, and while Milner would often push up to take Firmino’s place in attack, he has neither the athleticism nor technique to threaten a defence in 2022.
The full extent of Liverpool’s ideas appeared to be getting the ball to Trent Alexander-Arnold for him to attempt some Hollywood ball that wouldn’t come off.
Liverpool simply kept giving the ball away at the back, allowing United to get at them with little effort.
United soon took the lead. Elanga played a simple one-two with Christian Eriksen and Alexander-Arnold appeared to simply not fancy doing his job, moving to run after the winger before deciding against it and pulling back into a light jog, requiring Gomez to come across to cover. Gomez couldn’t get across in time to stop Elanga pulling the ball back to Jadon Sancho though, whose dummy sent Alisson Becker and Milner to ground but not Virgil van Dijk, stood calmly on the six-yard line to get an excellent view of the ball sailing past him into the corner of the goal. The Dutchman probably wouldn’t have been able to challenge Sancho for the ball, but could have at least closed the angle for a block, although to be fair it is probably difficult to move your body when you insist on holding your hands clasped behind your back like you are being arrested.
Helping to demonstrate that it wasn’t that United were actually good, but that Liverpool were particularly poor, the Reds began to exert some pressure as United dropped off to defend their lead. These attacks were primarily just quick combinations on the flanks, with Liverpool outnumbering or outmanoeuvring United in these areas to quickly play around them into attack.
It was United that got the next goal early in the second half though. Alexander-Arnold pumped another long ball forward, which United again easily cleared. The clearance fell to Henderson, whose poor touch moved it on to substitute Anthony Martial, and he slipped it in behind Liverpool’s defensive line for Rashford to run onto and finish.
Salah got a consolation goal from a corner but there was to be no comeback.
Despite the propaganda that will inevitably come from the club, Liverpool’s injury crisis is merely highlighting their problems in midfield rather than causing it. Much like the centre-back issue in 20/21, everyone can see it and yet nothing is done. Again, Liverpool look like wasting a year of some of the most talented players in their history because they have refused to reinforce their squad, always plugging a gap two years too late.
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