Derby Deficit
There’s that. This season’s chapter of the Northwest derby has been written and concluded. Manchester United do the league double over Liverpool for the first time in a decade. Despair and disappointment are the key words today as it was only after Liverpool’s valiant effort to claw the game back did Kobbie Mainoo seal the deal for Carrick’s red devils. Though still on track to receive Champions League qualification, losing against one’s bitter rivals will always bring dismay to the ranks. Casting our eyes back to the pre-match, when the lineups were announced it was obvious that between the two teams, Liverpool were the significantly weaker side. Alexander Isak, Mohammed Salah & Hugo Ekitike were unavailable for selection and so this unquestionably skewed the attacking fluidity of the visitors. Enjoying a season of a minimal schedule, Manchester United could no doubt send a stronger army onto the field. Bearing in mind that the war is won the field, let’s have a look at our findings.
Liverpool entered the arena with a front 2 of Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai in their 442 formation, Gakpo and Frimpong designated width holders, with Gravenberch and MacAllister holding their positions midfield pivot. Manchester United walked in with their magisterial captain, Bruno Fernandes along with their customary trio of Cunha, Sesko and Mbeumo. Looking at the talent gap between both sets of attackers, it was logical to expect an effective transition-style attacking performance from the home team.
Manchester United started the game by taking the game to Liverpool, winning their tackles, duels and the like. Enjoying several attacking transition moments that took the game to Liverpool and favoured the attacking players they had on the pitch. After conceding the first goal, Liverpool were subdued to building their attacks from settled possession, seeing as United could sit within their defensive block and wait for the ball to be recovered before springing themselves into attack from a deeper position, with ample space to run into. The question from a Liverpool perspective was this: Why did it feel as though that even though they controlled ball-possession it never felt as though Liverpool were in the ascendency?
In the first half, the momentum of the game was firmly in the grasp of the United faithful. Despite Liverpool enjoying and controlling 62% of the ball, it was United who entered the penalty box the most, enjoying 16 touches of the ball compared to Liverpool’s 6. The asymmetry in chance creation between the two teams was a decisive feature of the game and once Cunha put the visitors ahead from a corner, the game-state became the deciding factor of the game. As both teams were pushed into playing the game in a distinct manner. For Liverpool, what can be conjured up in settled possession? For Manchester United it was, how fast can you transition from defence into attack?
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Liverpool started the game by giving the ball away on a number of occasions in the first 15 minutes, largely down to individual mishaps but because they found themselves aimlessly circulating the ball, without either a vocal point that the team could refer to (Ekitike, Isak) or presence out-wide who could create dynamic play through dribbling or passing to get the ball into the box (Salah). Liverpool’s possession play got them closer to the United box, but failed to get them into it. Carrick’s simply waited in their shape and transitioned themselves into the Liverpool box with large-space attacks regularly,
From an out-of-possession perspective, Manchester United’s defensive block was passive and reactionary by nature. However, the two most active players when the team would apply ball pressure were Bruno Fernandes and Benjamin Sesko. The home-team would look to send either individual to chase the ball on his own, this often meant that either player was prone to straying too far from his supportive unit and allowing a Liverpool pass to be pushed into the defensive block. If Sesko looked to put pressure on Konate, due to the rest of the team choosing to wait further behind — whatever space opened in between them, Liverpool could look to play into, thus escaping any initial pressure.
Looking at the wide areas for Liverpool, it becomes easy to see why they often found themselves short of change whenever they tried to enter through the wider avenues. As forementioned, stationed in these positions were Frimpong and Gakpo. Despite the differences in their player profiles, it would be safe to categorise these players as direct players. This is to say that for a direct player, it would be best that they be paired up with others who can find them when they make their darting runs in and round the box. But also, they need space to be created for them either from deliberate movements of their own (standing on touchline to isolate, running in-behind), but they also need to be around other space invaders who they can use as reference points (Isak, Ekitike). Lacking reference points, their effectiveness was limited and both were largely shut out of the game.
Liverpool tried to create numerical superiority on the right-side especially by nudging Ryan Gravenberch towards the right flank to combine his efforts with Florian Wirtz to release Frimpong into the spaces beyond. Mattheus Cunha was especially important in this regard, because he often wisely chose to hold his position to limit any developments Liverpool tried to produce. Preventing a numerical overload and ensuring a closeness to his fullback to provide mutual support.
Manchester United have now consolidated their Champions League place, likely taking third place for themselves too. Liverpool still have it all to do with 3 games, though one can be sure they have all but just achieved their goal. We the fans, along with the manager should be looking forward to the new season in the hope that all the wrongs this season will be righted.
The name of the game was this: though Liverpool controlled the game through the means of ball-possession, they consistently found themselves either keeping the ball for its own sake or giving it away with loose passes and ambitious combination moves that break down.
Though the negative noise gets louder, much of this can be attributed to the loss of their three forwards: Salah, Ekitike and Isak. Next up, Chelsea. Time to get ourselves out of this deficit.
