Manchester United vs Liverpool, a match keenly felt all over the world. It is felt as passionately in Manchester, Liverpool or wherever I am based, Singapore. Manchester United and Liverpool are the two most widely supported English clubs outside of England or at least in this part of the world. They are the two most successful English clubs and for fans of either side, it is an absolutely gut-wrenching and horrible feeling to lose this one and not to mention the banter from opposing fans to just rub it in further. As a Manchester United fan, it is always horrible to lose a match because you would not only receive stick from fans of the team that beat us but from fans of other clubs as well who can't wait to rejoice at our failure. That feeling is multiplied by a thousand (or million) times for defeats against Liverpool. Matches between Manchester United and Liverpool are normally feisty and fiery encounters and that leads me to the next paragraph.
What did we witness in the first half last night? From Manchester United's perspective, we did very well to press Liverpool to force them into making mistakes and misplacing their passes, we did very well to keep possession but we were awful in the final third. We hardly created anything. It was frustrating to watch. We were totally dominant and it was almost too comfortable for us but we hardly did much to press home the dominance. If I viewed the match as a neutral, I might have fallen asleep or got distracted because I can understand how boring it was to watch that. Liverpool were content to sit back and seemed happy to get a point, United were not challenged hard enough and it was so comfortable that they started messing about in the final third. It seemed like no team really wanted to win it. The fire that people have come to expect from previous encounters of these two teams was missing. The blood-and-thunder was missing.
In the second half, for the neutrals, the tempo of the match picked up and perhaps the first goal was the catalyst for that. The match opened up, there was a second goal and two great goals shared by either side within two minutes. From a Manchester United perspective, it is always sweet and great to beat Liverpool even if we win ugly. The feeling is not to be under-estimated even if we have won the last 7 out of 9 encounters against them. We were dominant throughout and we thoroughly deserved the victory. Michael Carrick and Bastian Schweinsteiger won the match for us in midfield but we were still disjointed going forward. It was frustrating to get into great positions in the final third and not capitalise on being in that position or for our supremacy. It is frustrating to watch us hardly create any chances or have any shots at goal. Aside from his performance in the first leg of the Champions League qualifier against Club Brugge, Memphis has not quite performed as well as many would have expected from him but I don't feel it is fair to judge him harshly. He was never the finished article and can certainly develop further. He is only a young man and it is not easy playing and adapting to the demands of the English Premier League. Fans have to be patient with him and Louis Van Gaal got to start rotating him with Ashley Young who provided greater verve and impetus going forward and taking the opposition on. Perhaps some matches on the bench might get a positive response from Memphis.
Due to our strange and bad end to the transfer window, we are effectively relying on Wayne Rooney as our main and only striker which is why despite the poor start he has had to the season, I was worried when I heard that he was not fit enough to play any part in the match. I had written previously that I can't see Marouane Fellaini playing as a Number 9 and his performance yesterday proved me right. Tactically, he seemed lost and it looked all throughout like a case of slotting a square peg into a round hole. I can give him the benefit of the doubt that he is making his first start of the season and was lacking match fitness but I am not convinced of having him play as a striker. We can employ him as a striker when we are chasing a match but he cannot start as a striker. Playing Fellaini there just makes it puzzling why we sold Javier Hernandez or are even contemplating to let James Wilson leave on loan. He could have started as an orthodox striker and I had thought maybe Rooney's injury would force United to rethink the decision to loan Wilson but he wasn't even on the bench let alone starting eleven. We were toothless up front.
Anthony Martial came on and scored a sublime goal which was reminiscent of goals Thierry Henry would score in his heyday but in today's day and age, people are very quick to build someone up and equally quick to destroy them. All eyes were focused on him whenever he would make his debut at some point during the game. Everyone wanted to see why did he deserve such a high transfer fee and what was he all about. I would say he did well displaying pace and strength on the few occasions he did get the ball and he did score a great goal but its too soon to liken him to Henry. Please give him his own space and time to develop and grow as a player to create a name for himself. Like Memphis, he is only young and is far from the finished article. Hopefully he will get better with time and at the moment, the promise seems there.
Daley Blind scored a splendid goal as he has shown he is capable of last season but the biggest contribution he made was to clear off the line from a Liverpool corner with the score was still at 1-0. Overall, we were very comfortable until we scored and then we allowed Liverpool back in and Liverpool started threatening a bit more. David De Gea did play his part to make a couple of great saves in his return. He wasn't as busy as he was in the corresponding fixture last season but did well when called upon. Back to Blind, he did really well to make up for a couple of mistakes against Swansea before the international break to even upstage his centre back partner, Chris Smalling who has been in great form so far this season. One piece of action in the first half when he eased off the challenge of the stronger and taller Christian Benteke to get to the ball was an epitome of the kind of match he had. He gets pulled out as the weak link in our defence weekly by pundits and perhaps even opposing managers but it's largely been a case of so far, so good for the versatile Dutchman at centre back.
Moving forward, we have got PSV Eindhoven in our return to proper Champions League action. I feel Van Gaal's tactics are probably better suited to our European matches and we could probably get more joy in Europe than in England. Let's see if I am right on that account. I would like to be wrong if it means we win something this season. We would still need to improve our performances though and it is quite clear that we are capable of doing more and going up a few gears. Fellaini cannot play as a striker and I hope we are wise enough to retain Wilson. Besides that, I feel we are lightweight up front because I think the Wilson deal is almost complete. Maybe the presence of another top striker might keep Rooney on his toes and get him to perform better but it is too late for that now with the transfer window closed. We can only do the best with what we have got.
Finally, credit where its due, Benteke scored a great goal. I feel he has upstaged Mata's scissors kick effort at Anfield for the way he has caught it.
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