By the time the final whistle was blown, you’d have to wonder exactly what we have to do to finally score. With the echoes of Kenny Dalglish’s final season in charge of Liverpool ringing out as loud as it was clear, the Reds created everything, but came away with nothing as a clinical Manchester United ran out deserved winners.
Louis van Gaal’s side recovered quickly after Raheem Sterling squandered his first chance of the day with Antonio Valencia getting the best of both Joe Allen and Adam Lallana to pull the ball back to find Wayne Rooney’s perfectly timed run. The hosts doubled up in controversially fashion just before the break when Robin van Persie’s glanced header from Ashley Young’s cross found Juan Mata in an offside position to head home, but the matter was put to bed midway through the second when the pair combined again, this time with the Dutchman sweeping home in place of the Spaniard.
As abridged as that summary was, for lack of a better explanation, it was the difference between the two sides. As obvious as that may sound — one team scoring more than the other is how the game works by the way — it was not so much the quality, but the type of player employed up top and at the back that separated the winners from the losers.
While both the formation and the personnel employed by Reds boss Brendan Rodgers certainly contributed to their electric start and the amount of chances they created throughout the match, the lack of a recognized goal scorer hindered the Anfield outfit at every turn. And that, in itself, isn’t even fair to say, but when you look at the type of players making up our forward line in Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Sterling, you’re looking at play-makers and wide men — ones more akin to creating chances than scoring them.
In the same vein, throwing the less mobile and unmatch fit Mario Balotelli in, or the even less mobile and ageing Rickie Lambert, into that front three or even ahead of them would not only hinder, but more or less nullify the liquid effectiveness of employing those three together. That, of course, leaves the question mark that hangs over the head of Fabio Borini, who possess both good movement and decent mobility, but the Italian’s relative lack of appearances certainly ruled him out of consideration. One can only wonder what Daniel Sturridge would have done yesterday…
We created 16-chances, put 69% of our 19-shots on target and forced more than one defensive error out of United, but there was no breakthrough. As talented as Sterling is, he’s not a lone striker, and as a player who’s a mere 20-year old and still learning his trade, you can’t fault him for that.
Though, as I mentioned earlier, it felt like the closing stages of Kenny Dalglish’s Anfield reign. We created and created and created, but we just couldn’t take advantage. Much like during the King’s tenure, there was just that one piece of the puzzle always missing. During Sterling’s prolific spell last season, he had the likes of Sturridge and Luis Suarez to play off of and open up space for him as well as give him the confidence to try the more audacious shot rather than just make sure his effort goes on target — not that United ‘keeper David de Gea looked like conceding at any point.
It’s not too often you see a defensive player get Man of the Match when a team wins by three goals, but the Spaniard was the undisputed best player on the pitch. Where our own shot-stopper in Brad Jones, who has been drafted in to replace Simon Mignolet for an “indefinite” period of time, dove the wrong way on two of the three goals he conceded, his counter-part in de Gea didn’t put a foot wrong. That being said, it has to be pointed out that besides the Balotelli shot that he turned onto the crossbar, the shots he did come up against were sub-par or already had the sting taken out of them through foolish decisions on our part. Sometimes, that’s just the way things go.
You’d be remiss to say that we played badly; despite the score line, this was certainly one of our better performances this season, even if we did allow three unanswered goals. While I may have made it sound like Liverpool were the architects of their own demise, United did play quite well and continue to improve week-over-week — I’m just not interested in talking about that. I’d rather discuss our own failings rather than sit here and give them the verbal hand-job that the more traditional match report would call for.
Really, can you blame me?
–Steven
