Manchester United beating Liverpool at Old Trafford was such an unexpected result that it prompts several questions about what they do next.
It was a performance that nobody expected on a night that had the potential to be ruinous for Manchester United. With thousands protesting with a march before the game, all the ingredients seemed to be in place for their clash with Liverpool to be another match to be thrown onto the pile marked ‘Manchester United 21st Century Old Trafford Disasters’, but this didn’t happen.
United are now above Liverpool in the league, have their first win of the season, and a potential pathway towards rediscovering a little poise after many months when the good times returning to Old Trafford seemed as far away as ever. But all of this was so unexpected that Liverpool aren’t the only team with questions on their mind following this match. The only difference is that United’s dilemmas are somewhat happier than those facing their rivals.
1) To what extent to which was this United being good, and to what extent was it Liverpool being bad?
The evidence of our own eyes was that Manchester United were far better than a Liverpool team who were, frankly, flattered by only losing this game by a one-goal margin. But when we consider just how poor Manchester United were in both of their previous league games so far this season, the question of how much of what happened was down to Manchester United being good and how much of it was down to Liverpool being bad feels valid.
Because the truth of the matter is that Liverpool did make it easier for them than anyone reasonably expected. The lack of midfield cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold gave United’s attacking players more space to move into than they would ever have believed, while the suspension to Darwin Nunez robbed their opponents of a player who would likely have made a substantial difference.
To a considerable extent, none of this matters. You can only beat what’s put in front of you, and Manchester United achieved this comfortably, with their only moments of caution coming after Mo Salah pulled a goal back for Liverpool. Only then did the game start to look like what had been expected, with Liverpool’s forward players buzzing around putting United’s defence under pressure.
2) Is Rashford, Elanga and Sancho Erik ten Hag’s attacking solution?
Well, it certainly looked like it in this particular match. Marcus Rashford, Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho – three…
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