What can I say? We actually looked like the better side for much of that match. As usual, though, that isn't enough for United, especially against Liverpool, and we had to do things the hard way.
Defensively, we were actually fine for the most part, but the defensive errors made this match much closer than it should have been. Salah's first goal was down to our back line playing on their own instincts. Lindelof was slightly out of position on the left, and he broke our defensive line in anticipation of Firmino's through pass. Unfortunately, Shaw wasn't in sync with Lindelof, and Salah was put through on goal. I'd put the blame on Lindelof for not maintaining his composure and falling back into his instincts.
The 2nd goal was something similar though more of a team-wide issue. After we scored the 2nd goal, we dropped deeper in fear of losing the lead, and that gave Liverpool's midfield more time to pick out their options. The fact that our back line were so worried about Salah meant that Firmino got more time and Milner got more free runs. It all culminated in that one goal kick where we looked fine until Cavani misplaced his pass. After that, we didn't really recover into our shape as everyone was basically ball-watching. That, to me, was a sign of the team not necessarily feeling too confident, and it showed even more when Liverpool took control of the match. We could barely keep the ball, and we were giving more space and time to Liverpool on the ball. After a 10-minute spell, though, we gained our confidence back, and we were growing back into the game, which brings me to our attack's review.
Honestly, this attacking performance was one of the best that I've seen this season. We dealt with Liverpool's press very, very well, and our courage in playing out from the back helped us big time in exploiting Liverpool's defensive vulnerabilities. What was especially good was how we recovered possession from their longer through passes and then quickly transitioned to the attack after passing the ball around the back. Pogba and Shaw, in particular, were excellent in this regard, and whenever Donny got touches on the ball, he dragged Thiago out and created tons of space for our midfielders and wingers. The quick, sharp passing from the flanks allowed us to play around their press and create tons of space in the middle. Pogba and McTominay were also very good in handling Liverpool's press and forcing them to drop back, thus allowing us to build up our attacks. When we did build up, we did a very good job of creating half-chances from the wider areas via good runs from Cavani and the wingers. Pogba was also influential with his passing, and our full backs did a good job of retaining possession when the ball did go backwards. There's a reason we kept more possession than Liverpool, and it's thanks to the composure on the ball from the back line and our midfield. We probably would have done more had we given Donny more touches, but we still did fine with Shaw, Rashford, Greenwood, and Pogba.
Overall, this was a very good win, even if we did make hard work of it. My only worry is that we can become slightly complacent against Sheffield United on top of the usual game-by-game fatigue. We need to up for it against them as they won't make things easy for us.