Daniel’s Debrief: Manchester United 4-3 Liverpool

The brain. The most powerful of all the organs.

And goodness me, brains are hard to come by for Liverpool today. We lost that game as much as United won it.

That ground, that fucking ground. Every time I think I’ve seen it all, we find new and improved ways to mentally collapse there.

1999; out of the FA Cup despite leading with a minute to go.

2002; the Van Nistelrooy game with Hyypia sent off.

2006; Cisse rounding Van Der Sar and missing, Ferdinand winning it in injury time. 

2008; Mascherano getting sent off and refusing to leave the pitch. 

2010; losing after Torres had put us in front. Later that year; the Berbatov hat-trick. 

2011; a goal down in a minute and Gerrard off in Dalglish’s first game. 

2013; losing to Moyes’ United in the League Cup. 

2014; Sterling missing every chance imaginable. 

2015; Skrtel getting done for that Martial goal. 

2018; absolutely shitting ourselves twice in twenty minutes. 

2019; failing to score when United had lost three to injury in the first half. 

2021; the FA Cup, eliminated with Alisson failing to save an easy Fernandes free-kick. 

2022; getting beaten by a United side that had lost 4-0 at Brentford a week before.

And now another one to add to the memory book. A loss that looked so conspired that newcomers to the game tuning in on ITV would’ve assumed match-fixing.

We go 1-0 down early on after a typically sluggish start, which seems to happen too often in big games. Jarell Quansah and Joe Gomez aren’t alert or aggressive enough and though Caoimhin Kelleher does well to save Alejandro Garnacho’s shot, it’s an easy rebound for Scott McTominay.

I wouldn’t even say we respond that well. Our passing remains wild at times, the defensive positioning is so uncertain early on and the decision-making in the final third is horrendous all day.

Gomez is all over the show in the first half, but he’s not alone. Dominik Szoboszlai struggles too, and the Reds just look all at sea.

Kobbie Mainoo puts some shift in and Liverpool are losing the early physical battles. Both United centre-backs start well - Victor Lindelof always ups his game against us and Raphael Varane is still one of the best in the league and it baffles me why Erik Ten Hag doesn’t rate him more.

I’ll criticise Kelleher for the Amad Diallo goal later on but he keeps Liverpool in it early on with a brilliant save from McTominay when, once again, Liverpool’s defence was breached.

Good work from Wataru Endo pressing leads to him slotting home but it’s disallowed for a Mohamed Salah offside. Endo works hard today and is perhaps one of the few that comes out of it with some credit.

Another is Alexis Mac Allister, who continues his scoring steak to equalise. Quansah channels his inner Joel Matip to create the chance.

He’s iffy for some of the goals today, Quansah, but is phenomenal on the ball and a lot of his defending is good too. He and Virgil Van Dijk, who is immense, can look themselves in the mirror tonight.

As can Mac Allister, who is probably our best player again. With a goal, winning eight duels and three tackles, and creating four chances, he can hold his head up high as his fantastic vein of form continues. He does tire towards the end and is unfortunately dragged down into the mire that is Liverpool’s extra-time performance.

A half-time lead is perhaps deserved on the balance of play but also comes about in quite a fortunate way, with Salah prodding home after a messy series of events.

Salah is involved in the game and is present but his decision-making in the final third lets him down - he isn’t clinical in front of goal today and keeps on looking for a pass rather than shooting.

The second half is ludicrous. Chance after chance comes and yet we don’t take them.

Darwin Nunez has a horrid day and Luis Diaz is heavily influential but still lacks the killer instinct in front of goal.

The game is changed the moment Jurgen Klopp brings on Conor Bradley and Cody Gakpo, and more specifically, takes off Salah and Andy Robertson.

Robertson had done well, he’d cut out the unnecessary rushes out of the line and had looked after Marcus Rashford pretty well.

Taking Salah off wasn’t necessarily a bad move based on his performance, but was a move that screamed that Liverpool thought the game was nearly done, and they just had to see it out.

To an extent, that was right, but trivialising any task at Old Trafford, particularly when their season depends on it, is foolish.

Liverpool’s approach in the late stages of the 90 minutes is idiotic.

United come back into it a bit and the counter attack looks more and more of a way home, but a five-on-two is inexplicably fucked up by Harvey Elliott and Gakpo, while Diaz doesn’t help the cause with a ridiculous run. 

Garnacho against Bradley causes us all manner of problems. He’s a good player, Garnacho. Quansah and Endo get too tight to Antony, allow him to turn and he finishes well to equalise.

Frustrating, but I still fancied us in extra-time.

Elliott’s deflected shot finds the corner and that should’ve been the game. Lock it down, see it out. Liverpool have struck late so many times this season and have been masters at killing the remaining time.

But here, all of that smartness and muscle memory goes.

Brains are hard to come by.

Nunez, rather than hitting it long for territory, runs straight into Diallo’s pressing trap and McTominay feeds Rashford, who finally takes a chance to equalise.

Comical goal to concede.

Still, I fancied us. See out the remainder of extra-time and then back Kelleher in a shootout.

But there’s an arrogance about this Liverpool side which today is completely unfounded. 

Taking Salah off is arrogance. Getting a corner in the 120th minute and committing every single man forward is arrogant and absolutely fucking stupid.

It’s preposterous. It’s something we’ve seen so rarely, if ever, from this Liverpool season.

Lunacy. 

It’s like something from the Rodgers era. So stupid you have to scratch your eyes.

Liverpool basically banked on scoring from the corner. Because if they didn’t, they were likely to be facing a United counter that would be defended solely by Bradley.

The inevitable happens. Diallo gets a shot away and it squirms past Kelleher. It’s a poor goal from him but he’s been brilliant lately and is otherwise decent today.

The fault for this goal lies with Liverpool’s insane mentality which is naive, stupid and arrogant to the extreme.

And that’s the thing with this game. It’s not the worst we’ve played this season - Arsenal and Toulouse were considerably worse - but it’s the dimmest and the dumbest.

Idiotic.

The manager gets his substitutes wrong. Gakpo is disastrous and Kostas Tsimikas’ cameo is one for the ages.

Biggest game of the season for United, really. It keeps their season alive, whereas Liverpool have more to play for.

This was always the least important of all the remaining games this season, and I’m not seething, but it’s still extremely annoying how much we’ve fucked it away.

And a semi-final against Championship Coventry. A good, competitive Championship side, by the way, but as close to as guaranteed a place in a final as you can get.

Tossed away.

There’s bigger games to come and there’ll be players back - Diogo Jota was once again missed today for his clinical nature inside the box - and it’s arguable that this exit won’t do our Premier League and Europa League hopes any harm.

But, it’s an FA Cup semi-final that’s at stake. It’s not the third round. We’re far enough in the competition that the trophy is in sight.

The referee has a decent game overall but should’ve sent Bruno Fernandes off for a second yellow when he fouls Endo, and the sending off of Diallo is farcical.

I love ITV’s football coverage, but Clive Tyldesley remains the best commentator they’ve got and how Sam Matterface is preferred to him for the biggest games is berserk. Tyldesley hits all the right notes for Coventry’s winner yesterday whereas Matterface and Lee Dixon are a poor match.

The break now comes at a good time.

Today is annoying, but not defining. It’s a blip.

There’s still stuff to win.

But, to win the league, we’ll have to win at Old Trafford.

Just bring the brains next time.

Daniel