Saving Ten Hag
[Liverpool 0 – 0 Manchester United].
Some games matter more. For Liverpool, no game matters more than when United come to Anfield. As such, this outcome is not merely a missed opportunity.
It’s a travesty.
The 7-0 – just a few months ago, remember – was a stunner, and it happened against a better United than this one. In reality, I don’t think the expected goals in that game were much different than in this one, which in one stat line shows yet again the beauty and cruelty (depending which side you’re on in a given match) of our beloved game. During our in-house in-game chat, I said we had to score early, or we might never score at all, and it is one of the many predictions I’d much rather would have turned out to be false.
United set up well, but they simply aren’t good enough in this moment to present such stiff opposition. Indeed, it was the Reds’ own front line that screwed the pooch today. Chief agitator was Darwin Nunez, who is back to his old ways of being in the right place only to make the wrong decision. But it takes more than that, and today it was Szoboszlai who, somehow, played even worse. Between the two of them, they destroyed so many positive buildups that it would have required one of our centerbacks off a corner to score.
It almost happened, but that’s always a dangerous game to play.
In fact, the closest Liverpool came to a goal were on three occasions. The closest was from Trent, another came from (of all people) Joe Gomez, the third was off Konate. None of them are natural goal scorers, and it takes a bit of luck for any of those opportunities to go in.
Luis Diaz was positive throughout, and Salah was decent, but everything coming through the center wasn’t. That includes Gravenberch, who in comparison to Nunez and Szobo was merely average, but had no real impact on the game. The difference became painfully apparent once the trio of Gakpo, Jones, and Harvey were on the pitch, but it was too little, too late. In the meantime, United did their best to catch Liverpool with their pants down, something that happens a lot in these situations, and almost succeeded. It took a brilliant double block from our always-reliable Alisson to keep a very insecure Hojlund at bay.
Not that it matters, but Endo earns my nod for man-of-the-match, because at long stretches he was left all alone in midfield by his increasingly despondent teammates to break down a rival who were visibly growing in spirit, and did well anyway.
In the end, we can all feel disappointed. This draw will feel like a win to our down the road rivals, and it surely feels like a loss to us, one of those we may well come to rue at the end of the season. It hurts when it happens against a minnow. It hurts extra when it’s against United. Plus I’m willing to bet we saved Ten Hag from being sacked.
Arsenal are next, and we definitely cannot afford a repeat of this performance. Like a good friend of mine who is a Gunners fan said to me recently, title runs are built on stealing points away at the Etihad and Anfield. He isn’t wrong, and I don’t think they will collapse this season like did the last. Plus City is always lurking, priming themselves for another 16, 17, or even 18 game winning run.
Yes, I know, I didn’t mention Villa.
My headache’s big enough already.
