- Man Utd vs Liverpool, player ratings: Mohamed Salah perfect, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw shocking
- Keith Hackett: Paul Pogba’s malicious tackle deserved a red card – and Cristiano Ronaldo was lucky, too
- ‘An absolute mess’: how football reacted to Man Utd’s Old Trafford embarrassment
If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer survives this then he can survive anything. This was as shambolic, humiliating, embarrassing and disgraceful as it gets for Manchester United. And it all happened at the hands of Liverpool.
Enough should be enough but such is the faith in Solskjaer from the club’s hierarchy, such is their belief that he is ‘the one’ that he will probably somehow limp on before the inevitable happens and he is sacked. Or maybe he will quit. It again leads to more questions about those making the decisions because if they think there is progress at United then they are deluded.
Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, the three title contenders, are in a different league to them. United are eight points behind leaders Chelsea after just nine games – that is almost a point of game – and surely, already, the best they can hope for is fourth place. Maybe that is good enough for the Glazers but they should have looked at Solskjaer’s face as he walked off. He looked shell-shocked. He looked lost. He looked out of his depth. He looked like a man drowning.
The chaos was also summed up by Paul Pogba’s shocking cameo. He did not start, he came on at half-time, he gave away the ball for Liverpool’s fifth goal, and then he was red-carded for an ugly high tackle on Naby Keita who was stretchered off. As Pogba left the pitch many United fans left the stadium. They could not face watching the last half hour with 10-men as Solskjaer also then took off Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford. Jadon Sancho – the £73million summer signing – sat unused on the bench. What an unmitigated mess.
“Ole’s at the wheel” gleefully chanted the Liverpool fans sarcastically as the United supporters were silent. United are down to seventh and have lost three of their last four games, drawing the other one, but this was a defeat at another level; a new low. They were 4-0 down at half-time, with the irrepressible Mohamed Salah completing his hat-trick soon after, and that has never happened before in the Premier League era. Meanwhile in their last two visits to Old Trafford Liverpool have scored nine times.
Yes, Jurgen Klopp’s side are wonderful and can tear any opponent apart. But they did not even have to play that well even if they were ruthless in their finishing as United were gone in eight first-half minutes. Gone in five, in truth. That was when Liverpool scored their first goal and when they added their second in the 13th minute it was already game over.
Disorganised. Confused. Uncommitted. Insert any negative adjective you want and it would be no exaggeration in describing United. Poor coaching compounded by individual errors – which are probably also the result of poor coaching.
During a break in play with United 2-0 down, as James Milner went down injured before being replaced, Klopp called four Liverpool players over, led by captain Jordan Henderson, to pass on instructions. Not one United player was spoken to by Solskjaer or his assistant Mike Phelan as they stood motionless in the technical area.
United captain Harry Maguire was awful. Just awful. For the first goal he inexplicably left Salah and ran towards the outstanding Roberto Firmino even though he was already covered by Scott McTominay. And so Firmino could not believe his luck as he turned and slipped a pass through to Salah who was played onside by Luke Shaw, so deep in a ragged defensive line, and he had time and space to wait for Keita.
No United player tracked the midfielder, Salah picked him out and Keita easily sidefooted past David De Gea. From Alisson initiating the move it was six passes without a United player getting close before the seventh one was into the net. There was no pressure on the ball from United and a bunch of bad decisions. It was an anatomy of failure. This was not Premier League football.
There were more as Liverpool scored again. This time the ball was sent in from the left and Maguire and Shaw got into another tangle – no communication, no commitment – with Keita turning it out wide to Trent Alexander-Arnold who whipped in a cross that was guided home by Diogo Jota at full stretch. It was that simple.
Every cross led to panic in the United defence and so it proved as Liverpool struck again. They were quicker, slicker, more cohesive and of course Salah was not to denied. His shot was blocked, it rebounded to the unmarked Keita who crossed with Salah just wanting it more than the lumbering Maguire as he sprinted in to slam the ball high beyond De Gea. It took him ahead of Didier Drogba – who scored 105 times – to become the highest scoring African player in the competition’s history and he would claim two more goals.
On half-time, after Alisson thwarted Cristiano Ronaldo, the United forward kicked out at substitute Curtis Jones sparking a melee. It said everything about United’s frustration and lack of discipline but that was as nothing as to what happened on the stroke of half-time as Liverpool struck again. United just did not get close as Jota found Salah who once more had a ridiculous amount of space. And we know what then happens.
The boos at half-time were fierce and prolonged as Solskjaer trudged down the touchline. The game resumed and Pogba lost the ball on half-way with Henderson playing a superb pass with the outside of his boot to find Salah who was clear on goal and even though his first touch was heavy he was still able to lift the ball over De Gea. In doing so Salah become the first opposition player to score a hat-trick at Old Trafford since the Brazilian Ronaldo in 2003. And that was it. It simply could not have been more emphatic, more comprehensive and for United more damning who, like a pub team, ended up with six yellow cards as well as red. It felt apt. It was what they looked like. With apologies to the ‘Dog and Duck’.
Originally published in Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/10/24/manchester-united-vs-liverpool-live-score-premier-league-latest/