Key events
On a more serious note… “There was an audible rendition of ‘The S*n was right, you’re murderers’ after Liverpool scored,” says Stephen Carr. “This vile behaviour needs to be called out.” I missed that but if you’re right, it certainly does.
United actually played quite well for half an hour. But they’ve had only two shots and if I remember right both came from their right-back, Noussair Mazraoui. Matthijs de Ligt has been good on his full debut, but not good enough – and the first goal, like Brighton’s winner last weekend (also on De Ligt’s watch), came when United had somehow forgotten to put anyone on the far post.
“We must be in with a decent chance.” says Gary Naylor, “of hearing ‘Sacked in the morning’ this afternoon, sung to the beautiful melody of the fine rebel song, Guantanamera. Given that taking delight in the misfortunes of one’s rivals is a key aspect of fandom (do the Germans have a word for it?), is that the most harmless way to do so? Managers know they’re never that far from the door, most get a payoff that a Stretford End season ticket holder wouldn’t earn in a lifetime and some, like Vincent Kompany, fall upwards or get pretty good gigs at other clubs or in the media. Sure it’s mean-spirited, but you’ll let us have it won’t you?” Ha.
“I suspect that Slot might be given the benefit of the doubt by the Liverpool faithful,” says Stephen Berkery. “A slight change in tactics, and Gravenberch suddenly looks like a superstar… A change of manager sees a squad player become a prime mover.”
United’s predicament is meat and drink to Roy Keane. “Same old problems,” he says briskly. “Leopards and spots.”
There was too much happening in that half for me to open the mail, sorry. But here’s one from Mary Waltz. “Tim, greetings from California. Is Ten Hag under pressure already? Of course he is.
“Schizophrenic management puts every United manager close to the chopping block the day he signs his contract. All City players, whether they like it or not, know Pep runs the show and they better accept that. Ditto Liverpool under Klopp. Every MU player with a contract knows Ten Hag will eventually get tossed out the castle window.”
HALF-TIME! United 0-2 Liverpool
There’s just time for a Unite counter, but Van Dijk shoves Fernandes away and Anthony Taylor blows for half-time rather than a foul.
It’s been a story of one scenario, enacted twice. Two baffling Casemiro errors, two immaculate Salah crosses, two crisp Diaz finishes. And now Erik ten Hag has to work out whether to be as ruthless with Casemiro as he has been with Harry Maguire.
45+4 min Casemiro spots redemption as he tries to chip a through ball to Garnacho, but it’s too far ahead of him.
45+3 min Diaz, sniffing a perfect hat-trick, runs at Mazraoui, who sees him out for a goal kick.
45+2 min A third booking for United as Mainoo brings down Gravenberch. Silk on silk.
45+1 min A while ago a caption told us that Casemiro had given the ball away ten times in this match. And that was before the second goal.
45 min There will be another five minutes, which seems a bit 2023.
GOAL! United 0-2 Liverpool (Diaz 42)
There is the second! And again it comes from a Casemiro blunder. as he’s shrugged off the ball. Salah plays the creator again, and Diaz finishes with a neat pass into the corner.
40 min Martinez clatters someone and goes into the book. “That’s just daft,” says Jamie Carragher.
39 min Half-chance for United! It’s that man Mazraoui again, hitting the ball better this time but straight at Alisson.
38 min “The United players look a little bit dejected,” says Neville. “Go and get your second goal now.”
37 min You can see why United have spent £42m on Manuel Ugarte.
The goal sprang from a shocker of a pass by Casemiro. Under no pressure.
GOAL! Man United 0-1 Liverpool (Diaz 35)
There it is! A simple header at the far post from a delicious cross by Salah.
33 min At the corner Virgil van Dijk was trying to get in André Onana’s way, in the style of Ben White. He’s too good for that.
32 min The corner, taken short, is a dud. United break and Mazraoui, of all people, has a shot, but he can’t get any power on it.
31 min Liverpool win a corner on the right. “They’ve got on top,” Gary Neville says, “the last seven or eight minutes.”
30 min As the half-hour comes up, De Ligt wins his first big roar with a vital tackle. And then another. He looks like a no-fuss centre-back.
28 min After a couple more United giveaways, Casemiro does better with a through ball, a chip aimed at Rashford. Alisson comes out to head it away.
26 min There was a yellow card just now, for Zirkzee I think. A more likely candidate would have been Casemiro, who is struggling with the pace of the game.
25 min Alexander-Arnold finds Salah, his favourite target, with a glorious ball down the line. United tidy up but it would be no great surprise if they went behind.
23 min United live dangerously again as another Martinez pass goes astray.
22 min There’s another lull as Kobbie Mainoo goes down looking dazed and then goes off. The conference between Martinez and Casemiro expands to include De Ligt.
21 min Jurgen Klopp, watching on telly somewhere, will be smiling as Liverpool’s high press does the trick. Mo Salah gets the ball in the area but United manage to gang up on him.
20 min Liverpool have the edge on composure, reflecting their new manager’s air of calm. De Ligt has to tidy up as Diaz threatens down the left.
17 min Fired up by the crowd, Uited are scrapping better than they often do. Mazraoui and then Mainoo win a 50-50. Garnacho gets away down the right but his cutback is to nobody.
15 min Again, the head that gets to the ball in Liverpool’s area is the mighty one of Van Dijk.
14 min Zirksee gets a block in near the byline and wins a roar of approval. United come again and Rashford again wins a corner. He has justified Ten Hag’s faith so far.
13 min United regroup. Dalot fires in a cross from the left and Van Dijk heads it away for a throw.
10 min Liverpool are the better team now, playing some gorgeous passes. In United’s midfield only Kobbie Mainoo, serene as ever, seems able to cope. As Mac Allister recovers from a blow, Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez hold an inquest into the goal that wasn’t.
9 min The atmosphere was already rocking, now it’s boiling.
NO GOAL! Offside
Back to 0-0 … Salah was offisde as the cross came in before TAA thumped in the follow-up.
GOAL? Man United 0-1 Liverpool ((Alexander-Arnold)
An early blow for United’s new-look defence… but the VAR is looking at it.
5 min Van Dijk picks the pocket of Zirkzee and plays in Jota, who has never lost against Man United. He shoots wide, for once.
4 min United come again with Fernandes striding into the inside-left zone. He goes right rather than left and gets in a tangle with Joshua Zirkzee, allowing Liverpool to break.
2 min Rashford again, combining beautifully with Diogo Dalot and winning a corner… which Liverpool soon clear.
1 min United have the early possesion. They get the ball rapidly to Rashford, but TAA shepherds him back.
The players are out there and the crowd are making a lot of noise. Liverpool go into a huddle as the two Dutch managers have a quick hug.
A quick word for any United fans in the house. Rob Smyth and I, for our sins, have a free Substack called United Writing, which takes a close look at United’s ups and downs. Rob contributes some wonderful long reads, set in the past, while I try to make sense of the present. Last weekend I argued that the defeat at Brighton meant Erik ten Hag was already under pressure. He may be about to make that line look very silly.
“That is indeed a pleasingly simple potential explanation for Antony’s travails,” says Matt Dony. “It does, however, say very little for Ten Hag. He knew the Eredivisie, he knows the Premier League, and he knows Antony. If it was that simple, you would like to think he could have worked it out?” Ha, yes, but he didn’t know the Premier League very well when he splashed out on Antony, two years ago today. Maybe he has worked it out now, and that’s one reason why Antony is third choice on the right wing behind Garnacho and Amad.
“In terms of gamechangers,” says Rick Harris, “United do have Christian Eriksen, who has probably changed more games than Nunez, Gakpo, Elliott and Endo put together.” Ha, good point. With Mount injured and McTominay sold, he may now be Bruno Fernandes’s deputy as the No 10 – and he was sensational in that slot for Denmark against Slovenia at the Euros.
“A lot of chat about Liverpool’s contract situation,” says DDJ Stephens, “a lot about how Slot’s style is similar but more calm and patient… all good, but why is nobody talking about Nunez not getting any game time under Slot yet, despite his professed desire to make him the big nine for Liverpool?” I think he did come on for the last 20 minutes or so against Brentford, but point taken.
Newcastle held on to beat Spurs 2-1, while Chelsea could only draw 1-1 at home to Palace. Newcastle go fourth for now, behind Arsenal and Brighton on goal difference, but Liverpool need only a draw to leapfrog them. If Liverpool win, they will join Man City as the only clubs with a 100pc record after three games. Chelsea, for all their goals at Molineux, are 11th, two places and one point above Man United, who, if they win, will soar to seventh.
“You’re right about the lack of potential game-changers on United’s bench,” says Jon Collins, “but it really is an indictment of their transfer policy, and his performances in a United shirt, that Antony – a £86m winger – is neither a starter nor a useful substitute. Presumably he has little or no resale value, so are they stuck with him till his contract runs out?”
There will surely come a moment when he’s desperate for game time. A piece in the Sunday Times today posits a simple explanation for his struggles: in the Eredivisie, teams don’t double up on wingers, so at Ajax Antony often found himself one-v-one and able to cut inside and score. In the Premier League they do double up, so they can block off that avenue, and his lack of a strong right foot makes it hard for him to go round the outside.
In today’s other big game, Newcastle have just gone ahead against the run of play for the second time. Do join Taha Hashim for the final act of that drama.
The first email of the day comes in from Rick Harris. “Dutch managers of English PL clubs may not have lifted the title,” he says, “but they have won the FA Cup – Gullitt and Hiddink with Chelsea. Van Gaal and Ten Hag with United.” Very true. I wonder if that’s partly because they remembered watching the Cup final n the Netherlands when they were younger. Before this year’s final Erik ten Hag talked about that and the impression it made on him.
Teams in full
United’s bench is a curious one, with two goalkeepers and no full-backs. The only sub of theirs with the air of a game-changer is Amad, whereas Liverpool have some serious firepower in Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.
Man United (possible 4-2-4-0) Onana; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot; Casemiro, Mainoo; Garnacho, Fernandes, Zirkzee, Rashford.
Subs: Bayindir, Heaton, Maguire, Evans, Collyer, Eriksen, Amad, Antony, Wheatley.
Liverpool (probable 4-2-1-3) Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai; Salah, Jota, Diaz.
Subs: Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Tsimikas, Endo, Elliott, Nunez, Gakpo.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Teams in brief: Liverpool unchanged
After a serene August, Arne Slot sticks with a winning team in September. Even the bench is the same as it was against Brentford – no sign of Federico Chiesa yet.
Teams in brief: Maguire dropped!
As expected, Erik ten Hag bring Joshua Zirkzee in to replace Mason Mount. As not so expected, he replaces Harry Maguire with Matthijs de Ligt. When he did that last weekend with a substitution, United were suddenly disorganised. And there’s a third change as Alejandro Garnacho comes in on the right wing for Amad, who ejected Liverpool from the FA Cup with his last-gasp winner.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the biggest game of the weekend. Man United v Liverpool is a rancorous old rivalry that, even in the age of Man City, still pits the club with the most league titles (United, 20) against the one with the next-most (Liverpool, 19). The Old Trafford crowd may just find a way of mentioning that.
Today’s game will be just like many a meeting between the two sides and, in one way, quite different. It appears to be the first big-six meeting ever involving a Dutch manager on either side. You wait decades for a big English clash between two Dutch managers and then find that actually there are four of them, as Erik ten Hag now has two more as his right-hand men – Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has managed PSV Eindhoven, and Rene Hake, who, like Ten Hag, has managed Go Ahead Eagles.
When they shake hands, Ten Hag and Arne Slot will look interchangeable with their shaven heads and friendly faces, but as Premier League managers they are already chalk and Dutch cheese. Slot has instantly established himself as a reluctant shopper and a considered strategist with a clear style. Without exactly renouncing Klopp-ball, he has added a twist of patience and gained more control.
The upshot, in his first two Premier League games, has been a pair of 2-0 wins. That’s as many as United managed in the whole of last season. It’s not just the results that bother United fans: as Ten Hag hangs on for a third autumn in Manchester, it’s still hard to say what his style is.
While Liverpool invested in just one player over the summer (Federico Chiesa, for £10m, a third of his market value according to Transfermarkt), Ten Hag and his new colleagues bought five for about 18 times that. The latest recruit is Manuel Ugarte – yes, Man U have brought in a man called Man U – but he wasn’t registered in time to play today. The only attacker among the five, Joshua Zirkzee, may get a first start as Mason Mount is injured again and Scott McTominay, to the disappointment of many supporters, is no longer there.
No Dutch manager has ever won the Premier League, or even come second. For all his success in the domestic cups, it’s hard to picture Ten Hag changing that. Slot has a more realistic chance, though he may have to wait until Pep Guardiola gets bored of giving us his thoughts on hat-tricks from Erling Haaland.
United overperformed against Liverpool last season, somehow contriving to win once and draw twice while going out of their way to concede as many shots as possible. Today feels as if it might just be payback time. But it’s a derby, so anything could happen, or nothing.
