Manchester United 1-0 Liverpool - Capital One Cup: Setpiece weakness comes back to haunt Liverpool

Never have Manchester United fans cheered so loudly upon winning a third round tie of the Capital One Cup, as they did on Tuesday. After being drowned by the noise of a certain noisy neighbour, the Red Devils resumed action at Old Trafford for the third round of Capital One Cup marking a turning of times for both the clubs, albeit for very different reasons.

While Brendan Rodgers welcomed back EPL bad-boy Luis Suarez in the starting line-up, David Moyes brought on a tide of new faces hoping to find alternatives.

Teams

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): De Gea, Rafael, Evans, Smalling, Buttner, Jones, Rooney, Giggs, Nani (Welbeck – 90?), Kagawa (Januzaj – 73?), Hernandez (Carrick – 74?)

Liverpool (3-4-1-2): Mignolet, Toure, Sakho, Skrtel, Jose Enrique, Gerrard, Lucas (Kelly – 67?), Henderson, Moses (Sterling – 82?), Suarez, Sturridge

First Half – Brendan Rodgers changes his tune

The first half witnessed the usage of a very unconventional formation by the Liverpool boss. Brendan Rodgers set Moyes a tactical challenge, with Liverpool lining up 3-4-1-2 with José Enrique frequently prominent at left wing-back and Moses roaming through the middle in support of the two strikers, Daniel Sturridge and Suárez.

On the other hand, Moyes surprised a lot of people by making fresh choices for this fixture, but in hindsight this was obviously coming. The United team has been largely unchanged for the opening 5 fixtures and last match saw them battered heavily with a very tired duo of Ferdinand and Vidic struggling mightily. So for this match, in came Smalling and Evans with Phil Jones and Ryan Giggs in the midfield. The most welcome change however was the return of the best Right Back last season in EPL, Rafael da Silva.

With a tentative start from Jones and Giggs, Liverpool quickly gained control in midfield with the impressive duo of Lucas and Gerrard pulling the strings. Last time at Anfield, this had led to the midfield domination in the first half that had been detrimental in the end for United. Having learnt their lessons well, Moyes played with a higher than usual back line with more pressing up front especially when the ball was passed back to Mignolet.

With the younger duo of Smalling and Evans, this was a viable move and United soon began reaping the benefits as the match soon turned into a 50-50 affair. Phil Jones’ return to midfield was particularly welcome as he did the kind of job that was expected of Fellaini. He may make the occasional mistake, but Jones continues to show signs of a good combative midfielder-in-making.

The Shinji Kagawa fans did not receive much encouragement from his early loose touches, though his intricate involvement in the best of United’s chances still shows a strong potential coupled with a lack of match fitness.

Luis Suarez was in the thick of things, earning three chances early on in the first half, but making none of them count. It was end to end stuff really as both the keepers were kept busy with shots flying from left, right and centre. The only problem for Liverpool was that Victor Moses was having a very difficult time adjusting to the 1-man position behind Suarez and Sturridge. As the half wore on, the United began to get a foot in the game, and the whistle blew at 0-0.

Second half – Hernandez the poacher

Early in the second half, Liverpool were undone by their weakness in set-pieces as United took the lead thanks to an improvised volley finish off a Wayne Rooney corner kick. It was truly a poacher’s goal as he darted away from his marker to find himself in plenty of space to smartly divert the ball into the net and give United a half-deserved 1-0 lead.

Things then got worse for Liverpool as their previous calm turned into frantic pressure as United began to assert themselves winning balls inside Liverpool’s half easily. The best chance then came through a brilliant counterattack with Nani getting the ball from Kagawa before he hit it over the bar. He did have the chance to play the ball back to Kagawa but if he did that then he wouldn’t be Nani. It was much better from United, and they went closer not long afterwards when a long-range effort from Shinji Kagawa struck the bar on its way over.

Liverpool tired hard to attack and they almost got their reward when De Gea was called into action to deny Victor Moses after some fine build-up led to him planting a header on goal. It was then the end of the night for Kagawa as he was replaced by the impressive United starlet, Adnan Januzaj. Carrick was sent on to create more defensive solidity and the match was over then as he marshaled the defence well enough to keep Liverpool out. Suarez did show his brilliance with a wonderful free-kick which deflected off Jones to hit the cross-bar. But after that, chances simply dried up for them.

Positives and negatives

For Liverpool, the start of the season promised a lot of things but it’s pretty clear that they are still one season away from full maturity. A 3-4-1-2 was a brave move to accommodate both Sturridge and Suarez but they then need Coutinho to anchor from behind. With Sturridge in red hot form surely using Suarez in the hole would not be a bad move. Set pieces still remain their Achilles heel and fatigue is starting to become an issue as Lucas was off pace many times. A lack of second-half goals is also an alarming issue. With only EPL to now focus on, Liverpool have a long road ahead.

David Moyes on the other hand can breathe a sigh of relief as he finally got a big win under his belt that too with his ‘second-string’ team. He now faces a pleasant selection dilemma as the ‘not yet played’ players went out of their way to make their presence felt. Nani in particular was very impressive as he dribble and tricked his way around the wings. With Kagawa still showing tantalizing bits of that amazing bit of potential that Ferguson bought him for, the left wing has suddenly become a very interesting position. Add Phil Jones and Fellaini now competing for the same position and things are looking a little bit better for United even though it is going to be a hard season for them.