Lack Of Quality Period

Manchester United losing to Liverpool is never nice. We can brush it off if it was a pre-season friendly but never in a competitive match. Almost NEVER EVER. It leaves me in a bad mood the day after. To top it off, it’s two league defeats in a row and six defeats at home, an abysmal record. With a schedule that required United to play every 2 days, I wouldn’t mind losing to Leicester City if it meant we beat Liverpool in the next match. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer planned it as such as well with his team selection in both games.

Lack Of Quality

The defeat to Leicester showed us that we lacked quality squad depth but the defeat early this morning to Liverpool showed us that even the quality in the first team can be inadequate against big teams. The difference between us and the champions, Manchester City is like heaven and earth. We can beat them in one-off matches but in the long haul of the league and in playing at the highest level in Europe, we are short. The league table doesn’t lie which is why I don’t buy in to the argument that we are progressing. There is some but not enough to be close to City’s level.

Great Start But Didn’t Take Full Advantage

We got off to a great start in the game and scored within the first 10 minutes, we had the better of the game at the start but we didn’t press home the advantage. We could neither extend our lead nor control the pace of the game. We got into promising positions but were imprecise in our final ball. We then got sloppy and allowed Liverpool back into the game.

Set Piece Vulnerability

Manchester United conceded their umpteen set-piece goals in this game. We never looked comfortable dealing with set pieces in the match. For the first goal, we never cleared our lines. For the second, it was a silly foul given away by Paul Pogba first in a dangerous position to draw attention to a perceived foul on Bruno Fernandes which was not intelligent. Instead of fouling his opponent, he should have jockeyed him and tried to lead him down a blind alley or further away from the goal. He then proceeded to carelessly lose the player he was marking to allow him to give Liverpool the lead.

Poor In Possession

United was trying to overturn a narrow deficit and the last thing we needed to do was to increase the deficit so early in the half. Fred was the culprit for carelessly giving the ball away from his half. How many times has he done that this season? It’s clear to us he is not the most technically gifted and tidy player in possession. He is one of the main culprits for allowing Liverpool back in the game by ceding possession so easily. But he wasn’t alone. Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba had poor games too, getting caught in possession and giving it up easily. Dean Henderson should have done better with the save and I have not been very convinced that he is much better than David De Gea. We were lucky not to be 1-4 down when Diogo Jota hit the post.

Attackers Tried Their Best

Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani worked hard trying to feed on scraps and gain possession of the ball. Rashford was one of our best players and he deserved the goal he scored which was very well-taken. He nearly got his second deep in stoppage time. We nearly got an equaliser but substitute Mason Greenwood was unlucky that his shots were cleared off the line. But besides that, we hardly came close to scoring even if we were pouring forward looking for it and got sucker-punched by Liverpool.

Missing Maguire

Harry Maguire gets a lot of criticism when he plays but when he doesn’t play, the team misses him. He is good in the air, is strong and gives assurance to the rest of the defenders. He is not as bad as he is made out to be. The Eric Bailly-Victor Lindelof pairing looks shaky. Bailly has got a great opportunity to get an extended run in the first team but he has looked off the boil. Solksjaer spoke post-match about working on defending set-pieces which raises the question of the coaching the team receives individually and as a defensive unit. Next, on his favourite double pivot of McTominay and Fred. It has worked in some matches but it works best when the team sits deep and tight. For a team like United with its history of attacking football, it goes against our ethos to play in this manner frequently. It can be used in certain matches but it shouldn’t be the de-facto pairing for all big matches because this pairing is incapable of dictating the midfield by playing offensively.

Quit Being Stubborn Solksjaer

Come on Solksjaer, you got to stop being stubborn and acknowledge that the double pivot with McTominay and Fred wouldn’t work if we have ambitions of winning major trophies. We look terribly short on quality and it is not a one-off. This flaw has been exposed by lesser teams than Liverpool.