The battle of principled rivals was a great success.
Warming up without goals
We can expect everything from fundamental confrontations in England. There are crazy goalless shootouts and scoreless draws, diluted with snowball fights from Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher. Additionally, viewers usually prepare for one scenario, but then another happens. This time, the game was actually split into two equal segments for fans of both storylines.
The first half passed without any goals scored. Thus, many analysts, many more in England than in Russia, especially among former players, were forced to suppress comments on certain aspects of the game. In any case, everyone agreed on the fact that Manchester United certainly did not look like an outsider – and such a status was predicted for them given the latest results of both teams.
Ruben Amorim obviously had a good time during his rare week, which he was able to devote entirely to preparing for a match. It is important to note Manchester’s transformation in the center of the pitch. This area has often been referred to as United’s weakest area. And the appearance of a Portuguese specialist does not seem to have improved the situation. But in the match against Liverpool, the combination of Kobi Mainu and Manuel Ugarte worked like clockwork. They created the necessary compactness, which made it possible not to give in to the unbridled center of the “Reds”.
First of all, this was not achieved so much by the skill of the performers – here Manchester United There is no advantage – so much as extreme focus and discipline. Amorim, first of all, morally set up not only the central midfielders, but the entire team. It’s easy to say “don’t make mistakes,” but hard to do. Especially when we are currently facing one of the best teams in the world. Amorim managed to escape – with such composure Manchester United I haven’t played in a long time.
Of course, in general, the first half remained a game for Liverpool. He controlled the ball more, hit more often and with more precision. However, the score on the scoreboard remained equal and Manchester United did not give the impression of an intimidated guest. After overcoming a goalless warm-up, the teams staged a real extravaganza in the second half. This is where Amorim’s second obvious idea worked.
Pressure and character
The evening ceased to be languid when, in the 52nd minute of the match, Lisandro Martinez played like a real winger and transformed Bruno Fernandes’ free pass into a goal. The Argentine’s inclusion was clearly an unexpected surprise for Liverpool’s defense, who missed the area. Moreover, the main culprit was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who we talked about in the context of his contract expiring and the attack of Real Madrid, which is trying to sign a defender in January. Arne Slot can say as much as he wants that none of this will affect Trent – it won’t be possible to avoid it.
It was Alexander-Arnold’s inaccurate pass that was intercepted by Martinez, who then passed the ball to Fernandes, who caught the attention of the defenders and returned Lisandro’s response for the goal. Note that Manchester United regularly used Trent’s attack on the flank during this meeting. It was not symmetrical to the activity of the opposing team, where Amad Diallo, who had an excellent season, took responsibility. Here, the simpler Diego Dalot tried to build something with Fernandes, who turned to creativity, and there was this joker in the person of Martinez.
But we cannot say that Amorim dominated and destroyed Slot. After all, what followed was Liverpool’s aggressive response. The Reds, as befits the main contenders for the championship, activated a powerful pressing mode, literally overloading Manchester’s possessions with passes and raids. Seven minutes were enough for the assault to work. Here, too, by the way, it was possible to cover the exit from the defense – Alexis McAllister did this, providing the ball to Cody Gakpo.
And a few minutes later, in the chaos surrounding André Onana’s goal, there was a penalty. Here the offensive activity of Trent helped, whose serve reached Diego Jota, and the ball bounced into the hand of Mathijs de Ligt. Under other circumstances, the rebound might not have been considered so serious. But the Dutchman’s hand was clearly not in a natural position, so the VAR notice was enough for the referee to award a penalty, and Mohamed Salah converted it.
By the way, the Egyptian immediately crossed several significant figures in his statistics with this goal. This goal was his 175th in nuclear submarine. The great Thierry Henry also has the same number. In addition, Manchester United has strengthened itself as Salah’s main “client”. He scored 16 goals in 17 matches against this team. Additionally, in 19 Premier League matches this season, Mohamed has already scored 18 goals and made 13 assists. He became the best in history among all players nuclear submarine on such a segment. By the way, he surpassed the feat of another former Liverpool player, Luis Suarez, who scored 23 goals and made 7 assists in 19 league matches in the 2013/14 season.
But back to the field. In other conditions, such a revolution for a sick team like Manchester United would become fatal. It’s hard to recover from two goals like that in a row. Especially when you’re trying to get out of a slump and a strong, healthy opponent seems to be showing you your place, putting you down in return.
But this time, the Amorim team not only had a plan, but also the character to carry it out. It only took ten minutes for the score to be level again. And it’s quite symbolic that Diallo scored – one of the few to have been in the team recently Manchester United at least he is not the subject of an avalanche of criticism. By the way, the shake-up at United worked here. After all, the cross of the goal was scored by Alejandro Garnacho, whom Amorim had released eight minutes earlier. Moreover, instead of Mainu, that is, weaken the central zone and increase the pressure only in the Trent zone. The Argentinian crossed from there, even though another defender was next to him.
Moreover, Manchester United I did not timidly manage to get a draw, the team was not able to do it. The fairy tale at Anfield could have become truly enchanting in the last seconds, when Harry Maguire, who came from a corner, stayed in attack and completed the cross from about ten meters, but shot over the crossbar. Could become the hero of the match.
After this match, of course, there was a lot of criticism of Liverpool. Although it cannot be said that the “Reds” played very badly. Perhaps the periods of less active play were more visible here than usual. But this is the merit Manchester Unitedwho, on the contrary, worked much more efficiently and carefully than usual. Amorim rightly noted after the match that to be successful, it was necessary to lead each match with the same concentration, and not just such a fundamental confrontation with Liverpool. Otherwise, this match may not be the beginning of Manchester United’s rise, but only a failure in a season marked by historical failure.
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