FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Liverpool 4, United 0
That was a shocker, and yet it could easily have been worse. On expected goals Liverpool were 17 times better than United (1.87-0.11), which is how it felt in the first half. United were passive – because their manager is. Ralf Rangnick just stands there, showing no drive or leadership, let alone charisma. In his press conferences, he takes no responsibility. We don’t need that from a United manager: we can get it from the prime minister.
Early on, there was only one way United were going to score – from Liverpool messing up a pass out from the back. So they needed to press like lunatics. And they didn’t. But just as defending has to start from the front, so attacks need to begin from the back. And David de Gea, for all his skill as a shot-stopper, is part of the problem. His distribution under pressure is ten years behind the times.
The first goal was sheer defensive chaos. But the second was pure genius from Liverpool, which would have sliced through any team in the world. It was bad luck on United that Rafa Varane was missing, as he has been for all four games against the top two – every one a resounding defeat, adding up to a cumulative score that sounds like United’s chances of reaching the Champions League (15-1). Rangnick actually did the right thing tonight in sending for Phil Jones, but at the wrong moment. If you’re going to bring him in for a big game, give him a small one first – play him against Norwich.
It’s hard to say who was United’s worst player, because there were so many candidates. But Harry Maguire, still the captain for some reason, took the biscuit. He was part of the mess that led to the first goal, when he was drawn way out of position, and he was the prime suspect for the fourth, when he played an awful ball to Hannibal, passing the buck to the youngest player on the pitch. It should have been Maguire, not Jones, who was sacrificed at half-time.
The whole team played the first half, and some of the second, as if they were shell-shocked. And that comes back to the manager. For goodness’ sake, Richard Arnold, earn your fat salary: let Rangnick go now, or ease him sideways, and bring back Michael Carrick, who has already coped with United’s next two opponents, Arsenal and Chelsea. This wouldn’t have happened on his watch.