Manchester United were insipid and witless against Liverpool... they couldn't find their way out of a dark room with a torch
* Manchester United played pauper's football in 2-0 defeat at Anfield
* Liverpool take decisive lead to Old Trafford for Europa League second leg
* United have had only one shot on goal in their last 180 minutes of football
* Louis van Gaal's side don't look like Manchester United anymore
On the stairs leading up to the posh seats at Anfield last night, a Manchester United luminary pulled an old friend from the other side of the rivalry to one side and made a single, very clear point. Looking at his team sheet, he said: ‘This is the worst United team I can remember’.
It was hard to argue then and, 90 minutes later, the conversation was complete as United’s decline in to what is verging on irrelevance was summed up by some statistics more telling even than the 2-0 scoreline.
Louis van Gaal’s team have now played 180 minutes of football in the last five days – at Anfield and at West Brom in the Barclays Premier League – and have forced the opposition goalkeeper to make one save. That moment arrived with half an hour left here as Morgan Schneiderlin shot in to Simon Mignolet’s midriff rather tamely from 25 yards.
Van Gaal's side face an uphill struggle to reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League this season
To add to that, there are some other facts. United had only 40 per cent of possession during this game. They didn’t force a single corner. This was pauper’s football from Van Gaal’s team and no wonder former United players spoke so passionately on TV afterwards.
United teams have come to Anfield and failed before, of course. Whoever has held the whip hand in term of league position over the years hasn’t really mattered. Games between these two – whether they be at the east or west end of the A580 – have always been devilishly hard to predict.
But rarely, if ever, before have a United team ran out at Anfield and contributed a performance as insipid, witless and disorganised as this. The most you expect is some spit, fire and snot. From the directors’ box Sir Alex Ferguson must have looked on and wondered who it was who crept in and stole his club’s DNA sometime over the last three years.
Liverpool were excellent. Motivated and fuelled by memories of United’s ill-deserved victory here in January – they had one shot that day as well and it went in - Jurgen Klopp’s team were terrific to watch and their only regret will be that they will only take a two-goal lead to Old Trafford next week. This could have been a rout.
Their opposition, though, were wretched and perhaps the most damning part of their night was that they appeared to be playing to instruction.
Former United midfielder Paul Scholes suggested on TV that he couldn’t work out what exactly Van Gaal’s team were trying to do. It was, however, quite clear that the game plan was to sit deep, smother Liverpool’s creative players with bodies and hope desperately to get something on the break. It was horribly unambitious and in many ways was a complete betrayal of United’s heritage.
Unambitious? Yes, for sure. But this is a Van Gaal team, remember. This is the coach whose team came home with a third placed finish from the last World Cup having spent most of their month in Brazil sitting deep inside their own half.
At least that Dutch team was well-drilled, energetic and willing to roll out a well-rehearsed plan. This Van Gaal side look as though they couldn’t find their way out of a dark room with a torch and once again last night they were indebted to their goalkeeper David de Gea.
Without him, they would struggle to hold a position in the top half of the Premier League.
In many ways, this was a terrific night for English football. This may have been Europe’s second tier competition but a while it didn’t seem to matter.
The atmosphere at Anfield was reminiscent of better times on Merseyside and it is hard to remember a time when ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was sung with such prolonged gusto before kick-off.
Some away fans wore Manchester United's white shirts which were handed out by the club before the game
For a time all that United seemed to have to offer was some offensive songs from their away support. References to Hillsborough are never welcome and certainly not a time when inquests in to the death of 96 Liverpool fans are still continuing down the road in Warrington.
Happily, those songs appeared only briefly and there was no response from the Kop. What we didn’t need was anything to distract from the football because, for all that Liverpool were dominant throughout, the result remained peculiarly in the balance until the prodigiously gifted Firmino scored what may be a decisive second goal with 15 minutes left.
The concession of that goal was telling, too. Van Gaal’s attempts to reshuffle tactically to change the momentum of the game at half-time were as baffling as had been his team’s football.
Poor old Michael Carrick – thrust in to the relatively unfamiliar territory of central defence - fumbled like a nervous teenager as Adam Lallana approached and the immediate result was a goal and a margin of Liverpool victory that takes them to Old Trafford as overwhelming favourites next week.
In order for United to prevail in the tie, they must find something of their true selves in the second leg. Their decline under Van Gaal – even from the modest standards of predecessor David Moyes – has been staggering and last night there was no escaping it.
United no longer look like United and that is damning. It is okay to lose but it is not okay to lose like this.
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