Liverpool and Manchester United’s spectacularly poor draw at least reveals one thing
Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United: Jurgen Klopp’s side could have gone top but the visitors’ defensive display showed the title challengers are far from the final product
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Your support makes all the difference.Perhaps the best thing to say about this match at Anfield was that it ended. English football’s most historic fixture produced a 0-0 everyone will want to forget, and barely offered anything of note beyond some astounding errors.
The most uncharitable view given recent form is that Manchester United brought Liverpool down to their level but then Jurgen Klopp’s side seemed to do that all by themselves. It was a performance characterised by sloppiness. There were so many moments that barely seemed to make sense.
Maybe this is what happens when you play too much football, coming as it did on the day Fifa confirmed details for the expanded Club World Cup. Maybe this is what happens when one big club just seeks to defend as if they are threatened by relegation. Maybe it’s a regression to the curious trend of this fixture through much of the last two decades, where an overriding tension just suppressed the game.
Whatever the reasons, it doesn’t really mean that much more for the season. United will be happier with the point given their form, but this doesn’t really do much other than stabilise the mood a bit. It’s not like it showed they’re any closer to a working system. It was quite the opposite, given they only got a badly needed point by just digging. There’s still no discernible system or even preferred XI.
Although they are in a far better place, there were actually some echoes of that with Liverpool. This is still a new team striving for coherence. It is far from fully formed, and a frustrating game like this had been coming.
Liverpool will feel disappointed, especially given how easily they scored against United in their last two league fixtures at Anfield, including their 7-0 thrashing. Again, it doesn’t say much more about their season. Liverpool will be there or thereabouts for the title. It still feels like they are dependent on Manchester City not developing one of those runs for this formative team to have a chance.
Erik ten Hag only had one main requirement for this game. That was to keep it tight. United were understandably restrained, although it did lead to a fairly flat approach in a number of ways. The defence and midfield often became one bank, with just Alejandro Garnacho really breaking. That was if Andre Onana was capable of finding him. He wasn't the only one struggling in that regard.
It was still hard to know how robust United's backline actually was. Liverpool were unusually sloppy. It went right through the team, even beyond Darwin Nunez’s typical chaos. The Uruguayan put one header across goal when it was begging to just be nodded in. It was a rare moment when a cross was spot on. This was certainly one game where it wasn’t just the Uruguayan taking moves down different directions.
Dominik Szoboszlai couldn’t seem to find an area close to a teammate, let alone their actual feet. So many passes were astray, especially as Liverpool built down United’s left. It even afflicted Salah. At one point in the second half, the Egyptian sought to control a ball only for his touch to send it out of play.
By the time Jurgen Klopp did an increasingly customary move of bringing Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield into the second half, the space was even more congested. The playmaker just kept hitting the ball into United legs from distance.
It was a strangely bad game. One of the first pieces of real quality was a deft touch from Scott McTominay to put Rasmus Hojlund through. Alisson was out and shutting it down before the forward even realised he was properly in.
It was an issue admittedly undercutting Liverpool’s attacking. United were so withdrawn, and the ball so much near their goal, that created these huge spaces for counter-attacks. There wasn’t much accuracy there, though. When Antony did well to create space on the right, he then somehow sent a pass behind United’s entire oncoming attack.
Klopp had to go further than just moving Alexander-Arnold up. Nunez’s last act of the game was galloping into the United box only to lose control of the ball. It created another scramble, but not one where it felt like anyone was going to rise above it all to finish. Ibrahima Konate shot straight at Onana.
Harvey Elliott was eventually brought on for Nunez. It didn’t really change anything. Although it looked like Liverpool might be building to a winner, and they probably deserved given their overall intent, it didn’t seem like it fitted with the game. There was still one more incident to come. Diogo Dalot was sent off for a scrappy second booking. That was probably the conclusion the fixture deserved.
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