The inevitability of Manchester United’s chaotic openness and Liverpool’s wastefulness

For anyone who has followed football for a decent period of time, the events of the second half at Old Trafford yesterday somehow felt inevitable.

That is simply how football works — when one side is absurdly dominant in the first half but fail to put the game to bed, it seems they always live to regret it. Sure enough, Manchester United scored with their first shot, from 50 yards, and then went 2-1 up with another excellent goal out of nothing.

This meant Liverpool were playing catch-up, which was ridiculous considering how good they’d been in the first half. They attempted 15 shots compared to United’s zero before half-time and that difference of 15 is the third-biggest margin of any first half in this Premier League campaign. Liverpool’s meeting with Newcastle on New Year’s Day was 18-1 on first-half shots and Manchester City’s against Manchester United last month was 18-2. On that basis, it shouldn’t be surprising that Liverpool had plenty of shots against Erik ten Hag’s side.

Judging by a combination of their recent performances and looking at their starting XI on paper, United had three obvious weaknesses here. The first was down their right flank, where right-winger Alejandro Garnacho is a little sloppy defensively, Diogo Dalot is tasked with pushing into crossing positions and can leave space in behind, and Willy Kambwala, at 19, is a talented but raw right-sided centre-back.

Here, five minutes in, Dalot and Kambwala both find themselves midway inside the opposition half. Andy Robertson feeds the ball past them, allowing Darwin Nunez to attack the exposed Harry Maguire.

The second issue is that United’s system largely depends on man-marking in midfield, which means their central midfielders have to constantly track the runs of their opposite numbers. And, to be frank, they simply aren’t capable of this. Casemiro, in particular, looks increasingly immobile and on this occasion, two minutes in, simply wasn’t able to keep up with Dominik Szoboszlai for Liverpool’s first chance of the game.

The third problem was the gaps between the lines. Again, this is partly the result of United’s central midfielders being too keen to stick to opponents rather than keeping a good shape. Here, there’s too much distance between defence and midfield, so Luis Diaz can waltz inside into space to receive a pass from Virgil van Dijk.

When he receives the ball, and expects Dalot to be on his back, the Portuguese right-back is instead in a bizarre crouched position, effectively gesturing to his team-mates that he’s been caught between following Diaz’s run and watching the overlap of Robertson, who has advanced beyond Garnacho — not for the last time.

Most of United’s problems stemmed from these issues. Here, when goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher plays the ball out to Jarell Quansah, Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo are both trying to shut down Liverpool’s central midfielders, Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister. That means they’ll have to follow them backwards, too. But Mainoo switches off, gets sucked towards the ball, and Mac Allister runs off him and in behind. Quansah launches the ball towards him and if Mac Allister’s chest control had been slightly better, he might have been able to shoot. This was incredibly easy for Liverpool.

The next interesting incident came just 10 seconds later. Again, Garnacho isn’t able to match Robertson’s run. The left-back gestures for Mohamed Salah to pass to Mac Allister, knowing the angle of the next pass will feed him nicely on the overlap. Garnacho attempts to cut out the pass but can’t.

This showed the issue with the gap between the lines and United’s midfielders not matching runs — Robertson knows to feed the ball in front of United’s defence rather than in behind. Sure enough, Szoboszlai is making a late run into a great shooting position on the penalty spot, but he got this finish hopelessly wrong.

Cutbacks have continually caused United problems this season. In the next incident, they got away with it in a slightly ironic fashion — the problem stemmed from Kambwala racing forward and then losing the ball, allowing Liverpool to break. Diaz’s cutback is intended for Szoboszlai but is cleared by the recovering Kambwala, who is only inadvertently in the right position because he was so badly out of position in the first place.

Here’s another example of Robertson speeding past Garnacho to have a wayward shot from a decent position.

Here are two of the problems combined — again, a huge amount of space between the lines because Aaron Wan-Bissaka, like Dalot on the other side, is caught between tracking a winger inside and dealing with another player on his flank. Salah probably should have taken this in his stride and dribbled through the middle, but Robertson is again free in advance of Garnacho and the pass is too tempting.

In the next incident, one of Liverpool’s wide players is again in space between the lines, but Szoboszlai’s pass is a little misdirected and Maguire can nip in and intercept.

This move would have been the perfect goal to highlight all United’s tactical issues. Casemiro and Mainoo are again closing down high up the pitch, which means the gap between them and the defenders will be too large. Van Dijk feeds the ball forward into Diaz, who plays it around the corner to Robertson.

Robertson is again, of course, in behind Garnacho, who is trying to stop him but lacks either the anticipation or the acceleration. Again, Robertson knows to play the ball to the edge of the box rather than in behind the defence because United’s midfield won’t have recovered. They’re nowhere to be seen — the five United players in the frame here are the four defenders and Garnacho.

Szoboszlai can’t work the ball into a good shooting position and his scuffed ball across eventually comes to Salah — who, off-balance, fires over.

The more the half continued, the more United’s midfielders simply weren’t capable of getting back and providing a second line to deal with cutbacks. In this counter-attacking situation, Casemiro and Mainoo are again nowhere to be seen — the four players in the frame are three defenders and Marcus Rashford. Dalot, who made some timely defensive interventions, blocks Diaz’s shot.

There are also some examples of sheer naivety from United’s midfielders. Here, Casemiro plays the ball to Mainoo and then tries to burst into attack. OK, fair play for the ambition, but then Mainoo dribbles into traffic, gets himself into difficulty, and loses the ball.

Liverpool then end up with several runners and space to break into, with Diaz’s pass producing a decent effort from Salah on the run.

United’s only concession in this first half came from a set piece. It’s difficult to work out what their plan is here. Mainoo is initially close to the goalscorer, Diaz, at the corner. But he’s seemingly not marking him — his actual job is to be a blocker for Liverpool players positioned further back.

But when the corner from Robertson comes in, Mainoo suddenly realises there isn’t anyone to block. Liverpool’s two threats in that zone are already marked. But he’s not watching the ball, either — so Nunez darts towards the near post to flick the ball on and Diaz, who has peeled to the far post, turns the ball home.

United’s disorganisation was only matched by the wastefulness of Liverpool. For all their intelligent play and the chances they created, their only two goals came from a set piece and a penalty.

That lack of ruthlessness might cost them the title, but United’s constant openness may cost Ten Hag his job.