This should be the line in the sand for Manchester United but that has been said countless times. Liverpool absolutely humiliated them.
1) To be honest, drawing 16 Conclusions on that has the same vibe as a throwaway piece of five things we learned during a club’s latest training session. For Liverpool, that really was a stroll around the cones. Their opponents were utterly embarrassing, from Alisson’s fourth minute Cruyff turn on Bruno Fernandes, to Martin Atkinson sticking a fork in Manchester United as a response to Diogo Dalot almost completing the mirror image of October’s decimation with an own goal.
2) It was after a chastening 4-0 defeat on Merseyside that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer once declared of his players, “some of them won’t be here next year,” following a performance “not worthy of a Man United team”. That thrashing at Everton was on April 21 of 2019. Almost exactly three years later, David de Gea, Victor Lindelof, Phil Jones, Dalot, Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic and Marcus Rashford all reprised their starting roles for a display that was even worse. That XI being warned over their immediate futures and seven not only still being at the club but playing in such a prominent game so long after is a nonsensical equivalent to children continuing to misbehave because they do not fear the consequences of the guardian punished for their misbehaviour, nor the step-parent they know won’t be there long.
3) 3) This might also signal the end of Ralf Rangnick’s loosely defined contribution to Manchester United beyond his interim reign. The lack of clarity regarding his consultancy role has been bizarre and while there have been some bright sparks since his appointment, the general sense is that the club finally appointed a director of football but in entirely the wrong position. The German’s lack of coaching experience at any level since 2011, barring a pair of interim spells at an RB Leipzig side whose very structure he helped establish, has eventually told.
4) The damning contrast came 10 minutes later. A rare Manchester United turnover, not forced but gifted by Trent Alexander-Arnold complacency, offered a glimpse of a counter-attack. The pass needed to be sharp, crisp and quick, which is precisely how Matic delivered it. Yet Jesse Lingard barely had a chance to contemplate his signature before Virgil van Dijk stepped up, made an interception on the halfway line and immediately resuscitated Liverpool’s move. The difference between an £80m defender exposed by the failings of a formation destined to highlight his limitations and a £75m centre-half elevated by a system designed to accentuate his strengths was stark. Maguire pressed high then backed off the emerging embers; Van Dijk acted instinctively to extinguish the flames before they could breathe.
5) The second goal was irresistible brilliance, a build-up featuring Joel Matip and Luis Diaz building to a crescendo of Mane’s sublime lofted pass around the corner into Salah’s path. The Egyptian finished well but he was shown a sizeable portion of the net by De Gea, whose presence was ultimately hollow throughout. He so often manages to make the target look bigger with his positioning and anticipation, which seemed non-existent for the first two strikes. De Gea remained stationed in his six-yard box for both, despite them coming from scintillating breaks that could perhaps have been swept up by an enterprising keeper.
