Analysing the Best and Worst of Manchester United’s Performance vs. Liverpool

Manchester United and Liverpool played out a much-hyped game on Monday night that will not be remembered as a classic. From a United perspective, a week before the game it looked like there would be three key issues to be addressed if they were to get a favourable result: the balance of the defence, the balance of the midfield and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s form.

It is fair to say that the balance of the defence worked beautifully, the midfield did its job defensively and even created the odd good chance, but Ibrahimovic’s performance was a big part of why United did not get more than a 0-0 draw out of the game.

If Liverpool vs. Manchester United was a TV show…#LIVMUN pic.twitter.com/5rBHtVI34c

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) October 18, 2016

Let’s take a look at the things that went most right and most wrong for Jose Mourinho and his men.

First off, it is important to separate the game into different phases. The impressionistic image taken from the performance is of United defending with a literal back six. Marcus Rashford and Ashley Young occupied the full-back positions, with Antonio Valencia and Daley Blind inside them.

It was a remarkable sight—the kind that left you thinking, “Huh. So, this is what it’s like to support a Mourinho team.” This became more pronounced as the game went on—and in the last 20 minutes, it became the pattern of the game.

Before that, though, especially during the middle section of the first half and the beginning of the second, United were in the encounter in an attacking sense as well as a defensive one. Rather than an overly defensive mindset, it was a string of individual errors that let them down.

Early on, for example, Marouane Fellaini moved offside from a wide set piece. It was an immensely frustrating and unnecessary mistake, the kind United could ill afford. Young fired in an excellent delivery, but that momentary lapse of concentration from the Belgium international—who otherwise had an excellent game—ended the move.

Honest to God, Ibra and Pogba. Fam. Have a paragraph with yourselves after this game

— 2.0 (@MrScripto) October 17, 2016

Ibrahimovic never developed a direct understanding with Paul Pogba, who was playing in a more advanced position than he has done at United so far. There were several times early in the game when the Swede tried to nudge a ball back to the Frenchman and got his range slightly wrong. That was to prove emblematic of his entire performance.

He should, for example, have done better than to concede a foul when Young brilliantly controlled a long ball from David De Gea and delivered a cross to the far post at which Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius flapped. It was the kind of small-margins moment that even at the time felt significant to the eventual outcome.

Paul Pogba completed just 2 forward passes in the opening 40 minutes vs. Liverpool.Struggling to get in the game so far. pic.twitter.com/0y7JZZUlHV

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) October 17, 2016

Playing Pogba at No. 10 did not work. The telling statistic that he completed just two forward passes in the first 40 minutes is damning proof of that. It was not entirely his fault. Ibrahimovic’s lack of mobility meant the France international had to do a great deal of running, and when he attempted to link up with the veteran …

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