January 17, 2016 was the last time Liverpool lost a football match to their beloved arch-rivals at Anfield.
It was Wayne Rooney’s strike that sealed Manchester United’s victory over the Reds that day. How have times changed since then? Liverpool have won the league twice. Their friends across the street are not.
Ruben Amorim went into this fight with a glimmer of hope. It’s true that Liverpool have been in poor form, but United’s own form has also been troublesome since the Portuguese took over.
However, they were able to win consecutive league titles for the first time during his tenure. Perhaps Amorim is the right man for the job?
Regardless of the sentiment between the Red Devils, there may be questions about Arne Slott’s position.
This 2-1 loss was really hard to swallow. Liverpool hit the post several times and had a higher xG (expected goal value), but were unable to convert any chances.
Kodi Gakpo equalized the score, but Harry Maguire’s header in the closing stages handed the home team their third consecutive league defeat.
They are four points behind Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title. Indeed, it’s worrying considering how much they spent over the summer.
So where did the problem occur?
What happened in the match between Liverpool and Manchester United?
Well, where do I start? Strange things happen when things don’t go your way. Such was the case with Sunday night’s slot charges.
Before scoring from close range in the second half, Gakpo had an astonishing three shots on the woodwork, but the most notable came in the opening 45 minutes as Liverpool surged forward on the counter-attack.
The Dutchman found plenty of room to surge towards the penalty area, but his shot hit the post.
Liverpool could and should have equalized sooner. On other days they might win the game, but it’s a close call in Premier League football.
But it wasn’t just the lackluster finish that hurt them. The Reds were resilient last season and had a solid last line, but they have really paid the price for not investing more in their centre-back combination.
Milos Kerkes has been signed but is still struggling to operate in Liverpool colors, with Amad Diallo and United’s opener Brian Mbeumo surrounding him.
But captain Virgil van Dijk is probably the most worried given his experience. It wasn’t the first time he’d been outplayed in a game this term and the opening goal should have been better.
Mbeumo was allowed to ghost behind the big Dutchman and got on the end of Amado’s cute pass to score.
Whether Van Dijk has regressed is highly debatable, but perhaps the more pressing issue is the shape of his contract, the Premier League’s richest.
Liverpool’s biggest problem after Man United defeat
In the summer, Liverpool appeared to have won the transfer market. £116 million for Florian Wirtz? No problem. £125m for Alexander Isaac? Yes, please continue.
The Swedes were at the center of a story of omnipotence. He refused to take part in Newcastle’s pre-season tour and then trained away from Thun’s first-team squad for several months, eventually earning a move to Anfield.
However, since going to Merseyside, he has scored just one goal and was ultimately unable to feature at all during pre-season due to a battle with his fitness.
Now, ahead of the game against United, Slott declared it was time to make a decision. “Fitness-wise he is close to where he should be and we will be able to judge him in a fair way going forward.”
Judging him is exactly what we should do. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great performance from the Premier League record holder.
The centre-forward has failed to find the back of the net for six games in a row, but there is no doubt he should have found the net inside Anfield this weekend.
Isak took two shots, but missed one big chance set by OPTA, one of which went straight into Senne Lamence’s right boot. It was no surprise that he left the match with a match rating of 4/10, courtesy of GOAL, who rightly suggested that the striker would be “very disappointed with his performance”.
Isaac vs Man United | |
|---|---|
Play time (minutes) | 72 |
touch | 19 |
exact path | 7/11 (64%) |
key pass | 0 |
shot | 2 |
shot on target | 1 |
expected number of goals | 0.34 |
missed a big opportunity | 1 |
dribble | 0 |
loss of ownership | 8 times |
Statistics by Sofascore. | |
At Newcastle last season, when the goals were flowing, he definitely would have scored them, such is his ruthless nature. You can point to the lack of sharpness, but as Slott says, he’s ready to go.
It is incredibly difficult to keep one of the biggest signings in history on the bench, but Isak’s poor form has particularly affected Liverpool’s all-time player of the season, Hugo Ekitike.
He scored five goals and also recorded an assist in the first eight games of the season with the Reds.
The Frenchman was ruthless in the final third. He’s been everything Isak has been for the past few seasons, and he seemed to do it perfectly.
It is probably no coincidence that Liverpool’s form has declined since Ekitike ceased to be a regular star player. Slott’s side have lost all three of the three games in which Isak has started in the Premier League. It’s Ekitike’s time to score from the get-go in the Champions League in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
