5 talking points from Manchester United 1 – 4 Liverpool

#3 Liverpool showed more willingness to attack than Manchester United

The Liverpool attack put United on the back foot all through the game

The Liverpool side had more attacking intent in their game. They pressed well, they were fluent in attack, and their midfield was set higher up. They had 16 shots in total in the game, with 9 of them on target.

In stark contrast, United had just 3 shot in the entire game, with 2 of them on target. United tried to catch Liverpool on the counter, but Mourinho had set the team up so deep that there was a lot of ground for United to cover.

Liverpool had 65 percent of the ball and attempted 624 passes with an 87 percent pass completion rate. United on the other hand, attempted 346 passes, with 73 percent of those completed.

Very few of those passes were played to the front line, though Tuanzebe did find Mata with a fine ball from the defense, the Spaniard was offside. Then it was Sanchez’s turn to find Mata, and again the crafty midfielder was offside.

Sanchez had a really quiet game. He had to pick up the balls from deep and was always crowded by Liverpool players. When he did find the ball, he was too far from the goal to attempt anything.

United was so busy defending that their midfield was just outside their penalty area most of the time. McTominay had a game to forget and looks set to go down the pecking order with regards the midfield.

Unless he improves, he will be branded a one season wonder. Herrera was too busy keeping the ball out of the net to try anything offensive.

The few times United had the ball in the midfield, there was no one to aim, as everyone was sitting deep. Mourinho did bring in new signing Fred with 20 minutes remaining, but by then it was too late for the Brazilian to influence the game.