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Under grey skies at the Anfield stadium, two of the most successful English clubs of all time, Liverpool and Manchester United clashed on Sunday. After a decent 2017-18 season, United had made a disastrous start to the 2018-19 campaign with inconsistent performances and they were hoping that a win against their arch rival will sow the seeds for a revival. On the other hand, Liverpool were unbeaten in the league after 16 games.
After scraping their way through to the champions league knockout stages, United were left to deal with a lot of injury woes. Smalling injured himself during the warmup session and was replaced by Bailly.
Mourinho opted for Rashford and Lukaku up front with Lingard given a free role behind the two strikers. Klopp decided to rest Henderson and Fabinho was given the central midfield role while Clyne started in the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Right from the first minute of the match, Liverpool dominated possession and kept creating a lot of chances. At the 24th minute, Mane opened the account by beautifully controlling an aerial pass from Fabinho and glided the ball past David De Gea.
Soon Lingard equalized for United as Alisson failed to gather a pass from Lukaku and Lingard tapped in to level the scoring. Mourinho introduced Fellaini at halftime and Shaqiri replaced Keita at the 65th minute.
Shaqiri turned out to be the hero for Liverpool as he scored twice and gave Liverpool a 3-1 victory against United. Here are the 3 reasons why Liverpool beat Manchester United,
#1 Liverpool’s attacking talent
Coming into this fixture, Liverpool were the firm favorites mainly due to the form and abundance of attacking talent available at their disposal. The Reds were just ruthless while attacking and registered 11 shots on target in the match.
Fabinho who has blown hot and cold this season showed his value in front of the home fans with good defensive awareness and some terrific passes to the front three inside the opposition box.
The best player of the night though was undoubtedly Sadio Mane as the Senegalese forward was simply unstoppable during transitions and helped his team out in defense as well.
Salah wasted an easy opportunity early in the first half but kept penetrating into the United defense throughout the match. Wijnaldum pressed hard to get back the ball whenever Liverpool lost possession and exuded calmness while passing the ball in tight spaces.
Firmino was back to his best as he dropped off and linked with the midfielders to give Liverpool more stability in attacking. Overall, this was a terrific team performance from Klopp’s side.
#2 Depleted Manchester United
Even with a full-strength squad, United would not have been the favorites to win this game, but a series of injuries to their regular players had a major impact on the outcome of the game.
With Pogba on the bench, United really missed a player in the midfield who is effective in taking the ball forward with creative passes and dribbles. Sanchez was ruled out of the clash while Martial was benched after a tiring game against Valencia on Wednesday.
Smalling who was initially named in the squad got injured during the warm-ups and Bailly who replaced him had a forgettable night. Luke Shaw’s injury resulted in a lack of crosses into the box and significantly weakened the impact of Lukaku on the game.
The lack of bench strength has cost Manchester United against a Liverpool side that has been playing some excellent football this season.
#3 Mourinho’s tactics
Ever since the start of the season, The criticism against Mourinho has steadily increased and this defeat will only louden the voice of those who question his tactics. Even though the team was affected by injuries to key players, Mourinho’s choice of starting 11 clearly showed that he had little hopes of winning the match.
Rashford might look like a forward on paper but in this match, he was more frequently present in United’s half and had little help when he tried to move the ball forward. Even though his intention was to defend, Mourinho strangely left out the tall and strong Fellaini and opted to play Herrera who is at his best when he uses his playmaking skills to feed the forwards.
The most questionable decision of the night was opting to go with Darmian as the Left back even though the experienced Antonio Valencia was available. Unless a miracle happens, the ‘special one’ will be leaving Manchester United soon enough.
