Liverpool vs Man United

Liverpool stumbled to yet another defeat at Anfield yesterday which makes it 4 defeats in a row, something that last happened in November 2014, under Brendan Rodgers. This 2-1 defeat against Manchester United in a match that they were largely expected to win in order to gain some sort of confidence and bearing further exposes the woes that everyone now knows they’re facing. It was the same old story yesterday with Salah being practically anonymous, Kerkez not offering much both in attack and defence and Isak not showing his best form, missing a couple of chances that we now expect him to score as Liverpool’s starting striker. This loss has put them in 4th position on the table, 4 points below Arsenal in 1st and 1 point behind Manchester City in 2nd.

For Manchester United, this is a mental and physical boost whose extent cannot be overemphasized. First off, it was a win against their biggest rivals in their very own backyard, then this victory makes it the first time since Ruben Amorim’s arrival that they have won two games in a row in the Premier League. The win takes them into the top half of the table, in 9th position but they are only 2 points behind Liverpool in 4th.

Florian Wirtz, and Benjamin Sesko were the two surprise names on the bench with Isak being preferred to Hugo Ekitike too as we saw starts for Mount and Connor Bradley. The match itself was quite the spectacle, it had all the features of an entertaining premier league match, a quite shocking early goal, shots against the crossbar and the woodwork, a late equalizer and then a late winner. Manchester United shocked the world when they took the lead in the 2nd minute through Bryan Mbeumo after Bruno Fernandes took advantage of a miscommunication between Virgil Van Dijk’s and Alexis MacAllister(who ended up on the ground after accidentally being elbowed by his captain) to get the ball out wide to Amad Diallo who played a nice through ball in behind the Liverpool’s defence for Mbeumo to latch on to and slot in a cool finish past Giorgi Mamardashvili and that set the tone of the match. United looked organized throughout the match and especially in the first thirty minutes and they should have at least doubled their lead in that timeframe as Bruno Fernandes missed a great chance from another Amad Diallo pass with his shot going just wide of the target.

It was all Liverpool after United’s goal though as they piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser. They had a number of chances to do so in the first half but it seemed like luck just wasn’t on their side, Cody Gakpo hit the woodwork in the 21st minute after taking advantage of a Diogo Dalot error to cut in and shoot from the left wing as Liverpool also had penalty appeals waved off after the ball appeared to strike Amad Diallo’s hand in the box. Isak then missed a gilt-edged chance after being set free in the box by a beautiful pass from Center back Ibrahima Konate that gave him a 1v1 attempt which Senne Lammens found relatively easier to stop than it should have been. Cody Gakpo then hit the post again in the 32nd minute after an attempted cross deflected off Bruno Fernandes onto the woodwork and no Liverpool player read the situation quickly enough to get on the end of a rebound.

The second half picked up from where the first stopped as the trend of Liverpool pressure continued, Cody Gakpo hit the post for the third time in the match, sending in a thunderous effort against the woodwork after a pass from Salah who had largely been anonymous up to that point. Sesko came on in the 61st minute replacing Mason Mount while Wirtz and Ekitike came on in the 62nd to replace Connor Bradley and Alexis MacAllister who had been playing with a protective headcap after the collision with Van Dijk. This meant that Liverpool now had 4 forwards on the pitch in search of their equalizer, while Sesko became an outball for United as they were under heavy pressure.

Liverpool should have equalized in the 65th minute when Mo Salah brought a cross down on the right but he shot wide but they finally managed to in the 78th as Gakpo bundled home from 6 yards to get a well-deserved goal after a pass from Federico Chiesa who had come in place of Alexander Isak just 6 minutes earlier and it looked for all the world like Liverpool were going to rally and get the winner but fate, and Harry Maguire had other plans as the English man scored with a bullet header after a quite breathtaking cross from Bruno Fernandes to give Man United a lead against the run of play. Ruben Amorim then made a couple of defensive subs to protect the lead as Leny Yoro and Kobbie Mainoo were brought on to shore the defense up. This shouldn’t have mattered though because Liverpool should have equalized and Cody Gakpo should have had a second. Jeremy Frimpong had replaced Salah in the 85th minute and just two minutes later, he glided past Dorgu in the box to stand up a beautiful cross for Gakpo who headed wide despite being unmarked. From then on, United managed to hold on to their lead through the full 90 and the 8 additional minutes.

Apart from the win, there were a lot of positives to take from the match from United’s point of view, Senne Lammens looked composed in goal and Mattheus Cunha despite not scoring or assisting was responsible for a lot of things they did right in an attacking sense, it’s a win they will look to build on as they face Brighton in their next match while Liverpool will be looking to put an end to their 4 match losing streak when they face Eintracht Frankfurt in the UCL on Wednesday.