Newsflash: United have good players

And after a dismal run, they finally showed it at Anfield

SEVEN ASIDES Premier League: Liverpool 2, United 2

Bruno Fernandes with his tireless assists, Kobbie Mainoo with his intricate passes, Manuel Ugarte with his snappy tackles, Amad with his knack for seizing the big moment, Leny Yoro with his ability to sprint 80 yards and then pull off an immaculate tackle. Manchester United have a lot of good players. This should go without saying, but they were described the other day, by a well-respected correspondent, as ‘the worst United squad for 50 years’. Perhaps we should give him some of the credit for their sudden resurgence. This was United’s best performance against a top team since the Cup Final. After that day, things were never so good again for Erik ten Hag. After this one, things have to get better for his successor.

Ruben Amorim had started his new job like a hapless inventor in a cartoon called The Wrong Tactics. He picked the worst possible time to change the formation, brought along five assistants with no experience of the Premier League and put one of them in charge of set pieces, which promptly went from bad to worse. He made some silly selections, launched a public attack on United’s two most gifted goal-scorers, and tried to manage the rest of the players (bar Mason Mount) in a way that was all stick and no carrot. The upshot was six defeats in December, United’s worst month since 1930. Come the new year, though, Amorim had four clear days to work with the players, and we could see the difference: they were more energetic, more intense, more joined-up, more confident. They even, at last, scored goals while playing with five defenders.

For the first time under Amorim, United were greater than the sum of their parts. The three centre-backs were put to better use, stepping out to snap at the heels of Liverpool’s elegant midfielders. The move that ended with a gobsmacking goal from Lisandro Martinez began with him stepping out to intercept a clearance from Trent Alexander-Arnold. A rip-roaring finale should have ended with another goal from a centre-back, but poor old Harry Maguire didn’t allow for the bobble on what should have been a simple square pass from Joshua Zirkzee. Maguire would have done better to miss it altogether: Alejandro Garnacho was standing right behind him.

There are a few ifs and buts. If Amorim had been a bit braver, Garnacho would have come on earlier: Noussair Mazraoui, a wing-back still doggedly playing like a full-back, might not have been missed. The other wing-back, Diogo Dalot, was more forward-thinking and showed the leadership that Amorim demanded. But his forays down the left didn’t actually come to anything, whereas it took Garnacho only eight minutes to produce a telling cross from the same patch. Everyone knows there’s space to be exploited in behind Alexander-Arnold; not everyone believes that the best person to do it is a converted full-back.

United shook off some of their bad habits (conceding first, losing 50/50s, moaning at each other), but not others (conceding straight after scoring, leaving the door open in midfield). Rasmus Højlund struggled, predictably, against Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk. He completed just seven passes in 85 minutes and hit his only shot, when clean through, straight at Alisson. Højlund remains a puzzle – one of United’s strongest links on European nights and one of the weakest in the Prem. Fernandes, fortified by a ten-day rest, was even more Fernandes-like than usual. He misplaced so many passes that the statisticians lost count, with Sofascore making it 17 out of 59 and fbref opting for 26 out of 70. But all was forgiven when he wiggled along the 18-yard line, luring four red shirts towards him, and then played a peach of a reverse pass to send Martinez clear.

The last time Amorim’s United defied expectations, at the Etihad three long weeks ago, they ricocheted into a losing streak. After being four points off third place when he joined, they are now 14 points adrift, and it will be 17 if Forest beat Wolves tonight. So United sorely need to sustain this improvement. The signs for Arsenal on Sunday are promising: it’s another big game, another point to prove after the defeat there a month ago, and Amorim has another clear midweek, whereas Mikel Arteta has to steer his depleted squad through an even bigger game tomorrow night – Newcastle, home, in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final. But Arsenal will still be favourites, simply because they’ve been invincible at home this season (P14, W11, D3 in all comps). It will be a bonus if United can pull off an upset.

What’s more important is that they carry their Anfield momentum into the league. The next seven games are all winnable: the only big-six opponents are Spurs, who have recently been Spursier than ever. Before that there’s Southampton (home), Brighton (home), Fulham (away) and Palace (home): that should be eight points, could be ten. After Spurs (away), there’s Ipswich (home) and Everton (away), which should be another six or seven points. If United can get 14-15 from those seven games, they will be in the top half of the table; if they can manage 17, they should be back in the top eight, where they ended last season. Thereafter the fixtures get tougher, but the spirit they showed in Liverpool is at least giving us permission to hope.

Tim de Lisle, the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian, has been supporting United since they finished eighth three seasons in a row.