Manchester United and the Sea of Uncertainty
Liverpool have somehow failed to beat Manchester United in any of their three matches against them this season, despite creating 87 shots.
You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all.
This season, Manchester United have been an absolute enigma. A team without a plan. They look like one of the worst-coached sides in the whole of Europe, and the underlying numbers reinforce that perception.
They have played 31 matches in the Premier League this term, the same amount as Luton Town, who have a stadium capacity of just 12,000 at Kenilworth Road. For a bit of context, the Stretford End alone inside Old Trafford holds over 14,000 supporters.
Luton, who are experiencing Premier League football for the very first time and are on course to suffer relegation, have faced 529 shots so far this season. United, who have won the competition 20 times, have faced 549. That is outrageous at this stage of the campaign.
Erik ten Hag says that he knows what he’s doing whenever he’s questioned by the media, but those numbers will never be desirable in this sport. It’s like Anthony Joshua suggesting that he actually wants to get hit, and that it’s part of his plan.
And the Red Devils are ranked 17th for non-penalty xG faced, so it’s not like United are only giving up low-quality efforts. As a team unit, they are bad, which is why Liverpool’s failure to beat them at the third time of asking on Sunday afternoon was so difficult for all of us to consume.
They are awful and Jürgen Klopp’s men are positioned nicely at the top of the division, so why on earth can’t they win against them?
Sunday’s bout was a frustrating one, just like our recent FA Cup tie against the same team. Across their trio of meetings with United this term, the Reds have accumulated an incredible total of 87 shots, scoring just five times, with one of those being a penalty.
Excluding the FA Cup clash, Liverpool have amassed 62 shots against United in the Premier League this season. If you want to know how crazy that figure is, no team has ever created more against a single opponent in a season on record, dating back to 2003/04.
What do these insane numbers suggest? Well, if there’s one thing that is for certain, it’s that Klopp deserves a free pass. The process is clearly pretty good. He’s delivered two especially dominant performances in the Premier League, and one in the FA Cup that gradually improved as the game progressed.
His players simply haven’t returned enough at both ends, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why that is. In the first meeting at Anfield, Ten Hag employed a very low block and restricted Liverpool to low-quality chances, although the home side did generate 34 of them.
One of those 34 attempts usually rolls into the net after being deflected or something along those lines, but it just didn’t happen in December. Since, Liverpool have created better openings in two separate games at Old Trafford, without ever killing their historic rivals with the ruthless efficiency that is often required to win at the highest level.
Klopp doesn’t blame his players. Ever. But he’s hinted at them being responsible after all three of the games in question.
In his most recent press conference over the weekend, he said: "Arsenal are a good football team and if [United] play like today, Arsenal will win that game, I'm 100 per cent sure. I'm really sorry to say that but this is a matter of fact. We should've won both games and didn't. That's our fault."
He’s not wrong. Liverpool generated shots worth about 3.6 xG and restricted United to nine shots worth just 0.7 xG over the weekend. Their display was largely great. Bruno Fernandes simply took advantage of a gift wrapped by Jarell Quansah, and Kobbie Mainoo scored a belter not long after, which was good, but ask the kid to do it again.
Unfortunately for us, this is football. United are playing in a way that doesn’t make sense. They are welcoming variance with open arms, and when they manage to drag you down to their level, you end up spiralling and adopting their bad habits.
They are your signature moments team, with fast attacking players who possess real individual quality and a goalkeeper who is having a pretty good shot-stopping campaign. If, against that dynamic, you make the odd error on the ball AND fail to convert your chances, you’ll do very well to get over the line.
If you do want to put some criticism on the manager, Klopp has always been the type to favour chaos at heart. He’s a bit of a changed man nowadays, but when proceedings do descend into utter madness, it’s no surprise that Klopp’s players tend to let their intrusive thoughts win by getting involved, even when it doesn’t benefit them.
It’s hard to determine exactly why Liverpool have suffered from a weird mental block against United of late, but this sort of annoying result is the type that usually fosters false narratives within the fanbase.
Supporters have since argued that Klopp doesn’t have killers up front, for example. "The same boys who today missed a few chances are the ones who brought us to 71 points," said the German after the bout, and he’s spot on.
‘Diogo Jota would have scored a hat-trick’ has been another popular line doing the rounds. Maybe, but the Portuguese forward misses his fair share of chances as well, and much like his Reds teammates at the business end of the pitch, he’s also prone to being pretty scruffy in the penalty box.
Quansah’s future has been questioned on the back of his error, with Darwin Núñez coming under the spotlight for his end product once again. All of this is just noise. Despite the clamour for a definitive take whenever something bad happens, there doesn’t always need to be one.
United are still terrible, and Liverpool are still good. This was just One of Them, albeit at a bad time.
Next month, Arsenal have to face United at Old Trafford. They’ll probably win 3-0, but if Sunday’s game has reminded us of anything, it’s that football is about as unpredictable as it gets. You are never safe, especially with another seven games to play. It really doesn’t take much for the whole landscape to flip.
The Gunners are outstanding at controlling matches right now, and United will pose the ultimate test of that strength. They are chaotic, nuts, wild and stupid, even. They are truly embracing randomness and seeing where it takes them, whereas Arsenal are doing everything they can to minimise it, which won’t be easy against United, Tottenham Hotspur or Chelsea.
We’re still very much within the realms of anything can happen. Liverpool are joint-top with six weeks left. Arsenal are there, and Manchester City are there, with all three contenders doing their best to establish as much control as possible in a game that fights back.
Enjoy the ride, uncertainty still has enough power to decide the eventual champions. Sometimes, football doesn’t care if you’ve got a plan.
Happy with the point, but I keep on thinking that we should have focused on defending instead of attacking United. We were so desperate to score another when we were in the lead. To use your boxing analogy, a win on points would have been enough, but we wanted to go for the knockout. We only got two 1-0 wins this season: EFL final vs Chelsea and vs Forest (both last minute). Learning to stay calm when we got a narrow lead will help our title charge.
Without being too harsh on the players, Klopp and Ljinders can have no blame on this side playing 3 against this United side and not coming out with a win in any of them. I don’t know what Ten Hag is saying to his players before the games against Klopp but clearly it’s working. It’s no coincidence City go there and beat them 3-0, Bournemouth beat them, and even Palace beat them. Let’s have it real they’re shite🤣 but yeah frustrating one, clearly the attackers need some more sharpness. Hopefully to come