[DomesticTadpole]

They had two years to prepare for the ban and the season before he came, they spent 200m on players, 70m or so on Kepa alone.

Planning? What's that?

 

[KirkDuyt]

United were pretty good second half.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Expected the loss could which have been more. Martial could have scored. Did ok to keep the score down. Beaten by the better team.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Theyback managers in the transfer window. You need players to win matches.

We spent £150m again in the summer. We were the highest spenders in the Premier League. Did Ole have to spend the entire budget on an £80m world record fee CB? I’m sure we could have found someone of Maguire’s quality in Europe a lot cheaper.

Other than last summer managers have been backed. Van Gaal and Mourinho were heavily backed which is why we don’t have much money to blow currently. All the players in the world and we can only identify a player valued at €70m from the Portuguese league? That’s our problem.

We could have got Zlatan on a free for 6 months, he even said he would come back. We could get Mertens as he’s available on a free. We need a LB because Shaw is useless, Kurzawa is available on a free from PSG. Ajax players like Van Der Beek and Ziyech have cheap buy out clauses. Gamble on Haaland in the summer. Sell Lukaku and loan Sanchez to Inter but don’t try to loan Icardi who has scored a ton of goals for PSG this season. We are not smart in the transfer window.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Liverpool were there for the taking near the end, if we had a proper striker, and a midfielder capable of creativity then we could have done them, if only someone had thought we might miss players like this back in the summer?. Shucks, it sure passed me by.

 

[Haddock]

Two moments that stood out:

When Salah took his shirt off and you saw what he looked like and then you turn around and have a look at Luke bloody Shaw cramping up having played half the games at a third of the intensity Salah has.

The pass from Arnold to Mane and his back heel touch in mid air to Firmino. Then you've got Andreas running into Dan James...

That summed our clubs up. They were faster, stronger, fitter, smarter and more technically accomplished. Today we lost 2-0 but let's be honest lads it could have been seven or eight goals to two. They looked like they were playing a different sport at times. It wasn't men against boys it was schoolkids against mutants.

You can talk all you want about them being there for the taking. But they weren't. It was a lot like the 1-0 wins United used to grind out under Fergie. They were never in serious peril. You never ever felt we had a serious final ball or threat in the final third till Mata came on. They won the way the great continental teams used to win full of little tactical fouls. Utterly comprehensive 1 or 2 nil wins. What a team Liverpool have!

 

[Suedesi]

De Gea - Got booked because the referee doesn't know the rules to a game of football.

Bissaka - Struggled a bit with our weird formation, but then so did I...in that I still can't figure out what our formation actually was. Was Bissaka supposed to be in a back 4 or back 5?
Maguire - Last 5 minutes...time to send the big centre half up to, erm...stand outside the opposition box passing it to the wing but then not actually getting in the box?
Lindelof - Where did he keep going? Balls kept coming into the box and Luke Shaw would be the only centreback there, and I'm not sure if he was supposed to be at centreback or just covering because our actual ones had disappeared? Where do they go?
Shaw - What position was he playing in? Why does he always forget he isn't playing Rugby at around the 70th minute? Why did he clear one cross by spinning around in a circle mid air and booting it across his own goal, instead of just using his other foot?
Williams - Where was he meant to be playing?

Matic - Good at keeping the ball, and booting people in the face.
Fred - Good at, well everything to be fair.
Pereira - If you hadn't seen the team sheet you'd have probably just presumed Lingard was playing somewhere.

James - Did some good fast running. Running fast man.
Martial - Mate, if you can't hit the target from 7 yards, don't then with the next attack ignore your open team mates to try and score from 40 yards.

Subs:
Greenwood - Didn't have a chance to do much. Briefly joined in the poor crossing parade
Mata - Best attacking pass he played was to a Liverpool player
Dalot - I like him, but one thing he probably isn't is a left footed winger.

Corners - We're literally better at defending our own corners than we are at defending the other team's. Honestly if I was in charge of this club I'd be sacking people for this by now. It's ridiculous.

The ref - Was it Souness in disguise?
Souness - He's the only Liverpool fan on earth who has inexplicably become more bitter and full of shite now that they are actually good again.

Ole - Sort out our fecking corners. Seriously. You watch our games and aren't under 6 years old. You can see it's a massive problem.

I think it was a 3-5-2 with Harry - Lind - Shaw as CB, AWB and Williams as wingbacks who could tuck in as needed for a back 5 and then Fred - Matic - Pereira as the other midfielders and Dan James and Martial upfront.

I think we started well, and the goal came completely against the run of play - and once we concede our heads drop and we're so vulnerable to concede another (which we almost did). I think it's part mentality of the players that know they're not good, or don't believe in the tactical instructions (we're setup to stop liverpool, now they scored, what do we do????) . So right after the goal, we could and should have conceded more. We grew in the game and could drawn the half.

Start of second, Liverpool just completely annihilited us for 10-15 minutes. It's like players never emerged from the break. Well physically they were present, but mentally they weren't. Again, Liverpool could/should have scored again, which gave us some initiative and in another scenario could have clawed our way.

Then Pawson stops the game for a offside, Alison is allowed to dropkick the ball to Salah who scored the second. I'm amazed it didn't get pulled back. Wouldn't have mattered, but the refereeing was a joke start to finish.

 

[Mr Anderson]

Same old issues. Persist with a “Plan A” that doesn’t work - make changes too late

Lacked organisation today. Clearly no one was really comfortable in that back 5.

Liverpool didn’t have to get out of second gear - that’s the frustrating thing.

Whole club is a mess. Board and Woodie not committed to recruiting and Ole just not getting enough out of what he has.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Two moments that stood out:

When Salah took his shirt off and you saw what he looked like and then you turn around and have a look at Luke bloody Shaw cramping up having played half the games at a third of the intensity Salah has.

The pass from Arnold to Mane and his back heel touch in mid air to Firmino. Then you've got Andreas running into Dan James...

That summed our clubs up. They were faster, stronger, fitter, smarter and more technically accomplished. Today we lost 2-0 but let's be honest lads it could have been seven or eight goals to two. They looked like they were playing a different sport at times. It wasn't men against boys it was schoolkids against mutants.

You can talk all you want about them being there for the taking. But they weren't. It was a lot like the 1-0 wins United used to grind out under Fergie. They were never in serious peril. You never ever felt we had a serious final ball or threat in the final third till Mata came on. They won the way the great continental teams used to win full of little tactical fouls. Utterly comprehensive 1 or 2 nil wins. What a team Liverpool have!

So true

 

[K_Ash]

the formation was fine. Whenever you don't have the players to go toe-to-toe then you have to contain. and it is the second half we looked like we were going to score under that same formation. Moving to 4-3-3 didnt really change the momentum that was already on our side. All things considered, we played good enough to come out of this with a Tie( at worst)

 

[Suedesi]

What's wrong with that response?

Nothing really, he can't say we're desperate for reinforcements which would make any selling club tack on another couple of million pounds on whatever player we are after.

 

[MalcolmTucker]

At least we finished the game pushing them back - was unlikely we were ever going to get any points out of this game so it's about how we play vs. Burnley and Wolves that matters.

 

[theklr]

With a fully fit squad we would have no problems getting a tie here, no problems at all.

Just a damn shame our manager seem to risk injured people for games.

 

[RedAlways78]

By watching the game. We were in it till the end and even had couple decent chances which AMF like Bruno and striker like Haaland would have scored

Maybe a high percentage but nothing’s a certainty.

 

[CognitiveNeuro]

Keane speaking more sense than anyone out there regarding United right now.

He looked clueless when Carragher started asking him questions.

 

[GaryLifo]

United were pretty good second half.

Agreed. While they could have been further ahead, I think that the second goal in the end was a bit more than they deserved.

They've just beaten the weakest, on paper, United team I've seen us play at Anfield in nearly 40 years and they still couldn't thrash us. They're nowhere near being a great side to watch.

City play way better football top watch than these. Obviously not as effective, but better to watch

 

[crossy1686]

He looked clueless when Carragher started asking him questions.

But he had answers to them and Carragher was talking bollocks. By the same standards he'd have had Klopp sacked from Liverpool after a season when they finished outside the top 4. Carragher is Liverpool through and through, he has an agenda. Do I need to remind you he spat on a little girl the other year because United beat Liverpool?

 

[Lost bear]

This was a strange game which while for the majority we were under the cosh, it was frustrating not to at least get a draw given the last few mins. Apart from a couple of spells of 10-12 mins though, Liverpool dominated and credit to them. Right now

they are the best team in club football and they showed why. Their full backs are the best in the world.


We carved out one good chance in the first half which Pereira should have buried and one more in the second half which Martial should have done much better with but other than that nothing else.

Now the difference in quality between both the sides is fairly evident. The flaws that our side have are obvious as well. Replacing Pereira with someone who has genuine quality (Read Bruno Fernandes or anyone of a similar ilk) will make a huge difference to this side. There was a counter in the second half when Pereira instead of passing to the right (where there was a player in acres of space) passed it to Martial on the left who was crowded. The decisions made in those crucial fractional seconds decide games and in my opinion Pereira or Lingard are not the answer for that position.

Next summer will be the most crucial window for us in years. It will decide the fate of this current United side. With the young players we have, there is an opportunity to build something as good and exciting as this Liverpool side. (if not better). However, we need to invest. It is simply not good enough to rely on just young players alone and ignore the key flaws in this current side. We need an addition of quality in the final third and in the middle.

Now whether Ed Woodward and the
current ownership back the club and make the right investments remains to be seen and a huge question mark. Meanwhile, these are frustrating (and at times depressing) times as a United fan.

I agree fairly precisely with all of this. Unfortunately, at the moment it is looking disturbingly like last summer in terms of transfers, one or two of which are so badly needed at the present.

I’m worried and frequently disappointed at the state of the club, but also feel the promise in some of this young and highly talented team. I don’t go along with those saying we need a whole new squad ( or at least implying it) - but two or three high quality players - Bruno sounds like one- could inject not only the quality we need but also the confidence. I think the growth of confidence, and of the fight that’s linked to it, is perceptible already- fragile though it may still be. The crucial thing is the January transfer window and the one in the summer. Please don’t feck it, money guys...

 

[Teja]

I'm firmly in the Ole in camp but his squad management is piss poor. Of course having shit depth doesn't really help but he's just running players into the ground.

Should've just given up on the league and FA cups and focused on the Euros and PL. You need City levels of depth to compete on all fronts.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

Agreed. While they could have been further ahead, I think that the second goal in the end was a bit more than they deserved.

They've just beaten the weakest, on paper, United team I've seen us play at Anfield in nearly 40 years and they still couldn't thrash us. They're nowhere near being a great side to watch.

City play way better football top watch than these. Obviously not as effective, but better to watch

That saves me writing what I came here to write

 

[Member 113277]

People who regularly discuss the club on a football fan forum aren't following the club in any way shape or form?

I was being asked why I didn't find another club to support, thus my reply.

 

[GaryLifo]

They will be worthy champions in the same way our 2013 side were worthy champions.

The best side but didn't really have any decent competition.

In order to win trophies, they have sacrificed their genuinely scary attacking tactics for a more pragmatic defensive style of play. It's really not good to watch for anyone other than liverpool fans.

At least with City it's Good to watch. Even if they are bitter blue cnuts

 

[freddie the red]

Given that, for a variety of reasons, they have a better team, squad and set up than we currently do I was reasonably satisfied with today's performance.
Frustrated that twice James had the chance to put Martial in but his final ball was poor in the first half.
Annoyed that we gave another goal away from a corner in allowing VVD to stroll in and frustrated with both Pereira and Martial (especially) missing good chances.
Saying that, although they had the quality on the pitch, it was us who was causing them problems towards the end and we could have easily squared the game. Salah's breakaway was always possible when we were spending so much time in their third.
Two nil is a fair representation of the difference in the teams but on the pitch today we could easily have shared the points.
I hope Ole continues to lever those who shouldn't be here out of the club and that the future recruitment is better than over the last 6 years, do that and we'll be heading in the right direction again.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Sourness mentioned in the studio that Utd could take a lot of positives from that game? The only positives I can really think of are Fred’s performance and keeping the score down to 2. The rest was pretty much expected. If Liverpool had won that game by 5-6, you couldn’t really say that you didn’t see that coming.

 

[Gasolin]

So what happened? Did we regress in the meantime?

It’s a game of details. It means that despite all our injuries they cannot out play us, so if we get some hire in the creative positions things will change for us. The tactics were the right one again in those big games.

 

[Member 113277]

Good for you. Thick and thin. What a hero. Do you honestly think those of us who are APPALLED by our current pathetic state won't still be die-hard supporters in 30 years? I support the CLUB. Not parasitic owners and management. BTW. I'm STILL not Ole out. I just don't think he's any more than a den mother/ place holder/ scapegoat for Eddie and his masters.

You do realise I was being asked why I didn't chose another club to follow, didn't you?

 

[Kostov]

It’s a game of details. It means that despite all our injuries they cannot out play us, so if we get some hire in the creative positions things will change for us. The tactics were the right one again in those big games.

Out play us? Did you actually watch the game? They destroyed us in intervals, outclassed us. Men against boys like we once said about Arsenal.

 

[Devil may care]

We at least battled and had some half chances, there's something in this team I just don't think Ole is a good enough coach to connect the dots with it.

Not to get it twisted, Liverpool had a spell in the first half and at the start of the second where we could have ended up humiliated had they scored half of their chances, but given how low the bar is for us these days, the fact we didn't completely fold under the pressure and actually regained a foothold in the game counts for something to me.

said Ole needs time.

Is he back in the good graces of the club or something? because I recall last season after a very similar performance against City at Old Trafford after we got bummed by Everton, Keane was all on Neville's neck about accepting a plucky performance as good enough for a Man United team.

 

[Gasolin]

Surprised Keane wasn't pressed on his comment that Martial simply isn't good enough.

Martial needs to progress on that though. Killing the chances. Ole will improve him. But he needs to train and to train again and again to reach that even without looking at the goal. Same for James, he needs to put better crosses, he needs to look up and make it happen. If that is done, Liverpool panics today.

 

[CognitiveNeuro]

But he had answers to them and Carragher was talking bollocks. By the same standards he'd have had Klopp sacked from Liverpool after a season when they finished outside the top 4. Carragher is Liverpool through and through, he has an agenda. Do I need to remind you he spat on a little girl the other year because United beat Liverpool?

Keane started off was saying Ole should be given more time because Pep didn't do well in his first season. Oh come on, Ole's second season is more than half way through and look how they're doing ...not forgetting Pep's CV compared to Ole's.

He said he would give Mourinho more time...come on . How many times did Keane slag off and blame Mourinho?

Then made a point that Pep only did well because he got new players in....then they realized that United has been the biggest spenders since and he shut up

Keane was also saying how Klopp titles shouldn't be counted because it was Dortmund...come on. Look at how Klopp had to contend with Bayern and stealing all of his players and with a budget of next to nothing. You can't compared what Klopp did to Ole.


Then he went on this emotional tangent about Wolves playing Liverpool and how they didn't get it right before so why is everyone talking about United. He was carrying on about "Liverpool have all the answers to everything"

Come on man. He sounded like a child.

Pep and Klopp were given the benefit of the doubt because of their CVs. Look at what Pep won at Barcelona and Bayern. You have to be an idiot to be comparing them to Ole. It was ridiculous.

 

[Im red2]

Get Solskjaer out, but more important get Woodward out and away with anything to do with the football side of things. Bring in Julian Nagelsmann as manager, and Luis Campos from Lille as DOF then we will see major improvement. But it will not happen, it is very important for the Glazers to have Woodward in full control for he is their cash provider via our club. And that is for them the main thing. Until those assholes are out of United things are not going to improve.

 

[Sandikan]

United were pretty good second half.

I think it takes an outsider to say that, as most people are trying to do the "woe is us, how crap are we" moans.

Bar the 10mins at the start of the second half, we played as well as anyone could possibly expect in the circumstances.
We need our best 11 to go there and have a chance.
And it shouldn't need saying that Liverpool have dropped points ONCE by mid Jan and are odds on to batter Arsenal#s "Invincibles" record with a better points haul.

 

[Im red2]

I think it takes an outsider to say that, as most people are trying to do the "woe is us, how crap are we" moans.

Bar the 10mins at the start of the second half, we played as well as anyone could possibly expect in the circumstances.
We need our best 11 to go there and have a chance.
And it shouldn't need saying that Liverpool have dropped points ONCE by mid Jan and are odds on to batter Arsenal#s "Invincibles" record with a better points haul.

True, but it does not mean we should accept the current shit that Manchester United have become under the Glazers.

 

[NewGlory]

Maybe a high percentage but nothing’s a certainty.

Yeah, that is totally fair. I was certainly being hyperbolical, for the sake of emphasis on how much just these two players could have helped us even in this particular game

 

[Gasolin]

We spent £150m again in the summer. We were the highest spenders in the Premier League. Did Ole have to spend the entire budget on an £80m world record fee CB? I’m sure we could have found someone of Maguire’s quality in Europe a lot cheaper.

Other than last summer managers have been backed. Van Gaal and Mourinho were heavily backed which is why we don’t have much money to blow currently. All the players in the world and we can only identify a player valued at €70m from the Portuguese league? That’s our problem.

We could have got Zlatan on a free for 6 months, he even said he would come back. We could get Mertens as he’s available on a free. We need a LB because Shaw is useless, Kurzawa is available on a free from PSG. Ajax players like Van Der Beek and Ziyech have cheap buy out clauses. Gamble on Haaland in the summer. Sell Lukaku and loan Sanchez to Inter but don’t try to loan Icardi who has scored a ton of goals for PSG this season. We are not smart in the transfer window.

Many problems in this post. Ziyech specifically said no to any teams not improving his situation. He doesn’t see us as an improvement. Kurzawa? Come on now, he’s as bad as Aurier for me, the same kind of full back that is hyped. Mertens? Van Der Beek? Didn’t you hear other teams were on them? So you think money is the only problem we face?

We need the right additions so that we erase those last 6 years that is costing us so much right now. So much. Let the lads do their job. They need hard working skilled players, not just players for the money. Only then will they play for the team above all.

 

[Castia]

Madness that a scouse legend is one of the only people in the media questioning Ole and his record. Everybody else skipping along, grinning through gritted teeth acting like everything is under control the fecking shit houses.

 

[Im red2]

May I present the 3 Stooges

 

[Sandikan]

True, but it does not mean we should accept the current shit that Manchester United have become under the Glazers.

Completely agree.
But the state we're in, we need to save the meltdowns for losing to a lot crapper teams than this current Liverpool.

Rashford's injury forces our hand and we'll have to bring some sort of striker in, as even the most optimistic/deluded person can see Martial and Greenwood isn't enough to last half a season.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Many problems in this post. Ziyech specifically said no to any teams not improving his situation. He doesn’t see us as an improvement. Kurzawa? Come on now, he’s as bad as Aurier for me, the same kind of full back that is hyped. Mertens? Van Der Beek? Didn’t you hear other teams were on them? So you think money is the only problem we face?

We need the right additions so that we erase those last 6 years that is costing us so much right now. So much. Let the lads do their job. They need hard working skilled players, not just players for the money. Only then will they play for the team above all.

A major issue for me is player turnover isn’t quick enough. How can the likes of Rojo and Jones still be here when they haven’t been a regular in the starting 11 since they joined the club?

Signing 3 players a year on a major rebuild isn’t enough. Fergie would usually sign 2/3 players a season even when it could be argued we didn’t need to strengthen.

 

[arthurka]

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This.. crazy shit moving Smalling out for the guy who played worse in that horrid backline. Nothing club with no direction and no end of sight regarding mismanagement. Ed has spent over 800 million since Fergie's retirement and this is the state of the squad that 800m buys this idiot.

Liverpool weren't good we just didn't have the quality to hurt them. The start of the second half was embarrassing to watch couldn't make 3 passes and have them chances again and again.

Terrible state of affairs.