Where I do even start with this? It’s one for the ages. Biggest win at Old Trafford for over a hundred years or something. It was an absolute fucking beatdown and United were utterly humiliated. The funny thing is we were probably only at about 75%.
We played well but we definitely have another gear we can go to if needed. It wasn’t needed because United are so flawed and we were so clinical on the day. It was billed as Ronaldo v Salah and it did feel like a passing of the torch moment. Any claim to the throne Ronaldo may still think he has was dismissed out of hand by the Egyptian King going into his back yard and taking the fucking piss.
At this moment in time there is no-one in the world better at football than Mo Salah and he proved it beyond doubt on this stage. United might be shite but it’s still Old Trafford and it’s a huge game. The eyes of the world were on it and Mo put Ronaldo over his knee and spanked him.
This was almost surreal at times. That moment when Sky showed a fucking fuming Alex Ferguson and then cut to a beaming Kenny was just iconic. What a fucking moment that was. Kudos to that director, that was fucking phenomenal TV.
In hindsight it’s easy to look back on this and go “yeah, what we were even worried about? That’s how it’s supposed to happen.” Football is rarely like that though and this is a notoriously bad ground for us. We won there last year and although there were no fans there I was hoping that maybe it will have given the players confidence that they can win at Old Trafford.
City have been horrendous at Anfield but won there last season in an empty stadium. It’s easy for us to say “it means nothing” but clearly it meant something to them because this season they came here and played better than I’ve ever seen play here.
I was hoping a similar thing would happen with us, and specifically Mo. He’s usually been shite at Old Trafford. Really bad. But he was boss there last season and maybe that changed something in him and gave him confidence to do it again. And he sure fucking did. Wow.
I was neither confident nor pessimistic going into this. I had absolutely no clue what to expect, but when I saw the starting eleven my shoulders did slump a little. Konate in for Matip was a weird one. Protecting Joel makes sense, but it seemed like an odd time to throw Konate in, especially when Gomez is available.
Klopp said they saw something when analysing United that made them think Konate was a good fit for the game. No idea what it was, but they were right because Konate was fucking boss. Looked completely at home and not overawed at all, even though he was up against someone with the reputation of Ronaldo.
The midfield was a concern too. No Fabinho? Fucks sake. He’s one of the first names on the teamsheet in big games as he’s so important. I know United’s midfield is shite, but the quality they have up front is beyond question so you want Fabinho there stopping the likes of Fernandes getting on the ball.
Hendo, Keita and Milner isn’t going to inspire massive confidence in a fixture we’ve found so difficult in the past. Milner shouldn’t have been anywhere the starting eleven having played twice this week already, while it was a big call to retain faith in Naby after what happened in midweek.
The Milner decision was proven to be a mistake but Keita absolutely justified his inclusion. He was boss and was as influential as anybody in what we did in the first half.
I’m made up with 5-0 as beforehand I’d have snatched your hands off for any kind of win and the performance didn’t really matter. Because it’s them, because it’s there, I’d have taken any win I can get.
But if you’re a long time reader you probably know what’s coming next. Yes, there’s a small part of me pissed off that we only scored five. As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s true. The last half an hour was frustrating to me because there were more goals to be had there if we’d pushed for them.
We were arguing about this on post match pod as Paul and Brownie were shooting me down about it. You might agree with them and don’t see this as any kind of missed opportunity because 5-0 was beyond all of our wildest dreams. If you think that, let me ask you a question:
When Pogba got sent off with half an hour to go, if you had the option to stop the game there and then and take the 5-0, or carry on playing to see if we could score seven, eight or possibly even more, would you have settled for the five at that point?
It looked to me like half the team wanted to keep piling forward to score more goals but the other half had their sensible heads on and wanted to play keep ball, take the sting out of the game and make sure we didn’t pick up any more injuries. Those instructions may have even come from Klopp, I don’t know.
I just know it was frustrating because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something completely unprecedented. All the years we suffered at their hands, all the times their fans taunted us at their place as well as at Anfield. The misery they inflicted on us right throughout the 90s and for another decade after. This was a chance to give them the biggest payback imaginable. Sure, 5-0 at Old Trafford does that to a great extent anyway, but imagine if we’d scored eight.
There was half an hour left and they were completely broken. Their heads were gone and we could have scored as many as we wanted. There was an element of “stop hitting them, they’re already dead” about this. The thing is though, I’d have been kicking that corpse until my feet hurt. Then I’d have pissed on it, set it on fire, and then pissed on the ashes. This is Manchester United. I wanted to absolutely destroy them and five feels like they got away with it a bit.
That’s only a small part of me though. The overwhelming feeling is of massive satisfaction. It’s a result that will be remembered and spoken about for generations to come. Probably this generation’s “5-1 at Goodison” result in many ways, with Mo in the Ian Rush role.
I think what I enjoyed most about this is that it actually went the way it was supposed to based on the current level of both teams. That rarely happens, usually because the inferior side raises their game and the superior side doesn’t perform as they can. Great United teams have come to Anfield and played bang average Liverpool teams and not won, while we’ve gone there knowing we’re miles better than them but just not performed.
This one went exactly how it should have though. It’s fascinating now looking back on Paul Scholes’ comments after they beat Atalanta as he called this one exactly right. He hit the nail on the head instead of putting it between his teeth. He knew what was going to happen if United tried to play the same way against us and he even said it would be three or four nil at half time.
That’s someone giving an informed opinion based on actually watching how a team is playing and analysing their weaknesses. Compare that to Gabby Agbonlahor who predicted a United win based entirely on a narrative; Ronaldo won’t want to be outshone by Salah at home.
I never dreamed it would go this well for us just because so often we haven’t done ourselves justice, and also because I didn’t think for a second Solskjaer would try to play like that. I assumed they’d sit in their own half, compact, try to restrict the space for our front players and full backs, and then hit us on the break with their speedy attackers, especially in wide areas when our full backs go forward.
Instead they were attempting this half arsed high press where some players would press, others wouldn’t, and they just never got near us. The first goal is amazing. Not because of anything we did, but because of how naive and disorganised they were.
Coming out to press and getting there a second late every time and leaving gaps in the space they vacated. It was too easy for us. Credit to the lads involved in the move, especially Mo and Naby, but that’s pure shite from United.
Just lovely from Mo though, I’m buzzing off the way he’s so often looking to play team-mates in now. There’s been a real maturation in his game this season. He still desperately wants to score but he wants to win trophies even more. He’s making great decisions every week, while still scoring at a rate like never before.
It’s class from Keita too. Lovely run into the space and a cool finish. He started the game well and made a vital interception with only a minute gone. We were potentially in trouble there after giving the ball away cheaply but Naby nipped in to steal the ball back.
After what happened in midweek there was a lot of pressure on him to deliver in this game, and usually he’s folded under that kind of pressure. This time he delivered a top performance. Probably his best since arriving at the club.
He was involved in the second goal when he took advantage of a misunderstanding between Maguire and Shaw to play a lovely little ball into the overlapping Trent, who crossed for Jota to poke him from close range.
I thought that was offside at first and even after a couple of replays I still expected it to be chalked off. The camera angle was really deceiving though and when they draw the lines it wasn’t even that close. 2-0 inside 13 minutes. Dreamland.
But then this happened the other night too and we got pegged back before half time. Maybe that helped this time, with the memory of what happened in Madrid so fresh in the players’ minds they were completely switched on. Or maybe Atletico are just miles better than United.
United are always dangerous though because of the talent in their team. As shot as they were in this game, they had chances. Fernandes misses a great opening when the game was still goalless. They had other moments of danger too.
Alisson made good saves to deny Greenwood and Ronaldo, but this is who United are. They’ll always have opportunities because good players will have moments in games. Their problem is that is all they have. They aren’t a team, they have no plan, no organisation, no identity. Just a load of really good players doing their own thing.
It was 3-0 when Mo found Naby in the box and then got on the end of an excellent return cross. Unbelievable. United’s heads had gone and so had a good chunk of the crowd. They were leaving in their hundreds, maybe even thousands, before half time.
Ronaldo lashed out petulantly after losing out to Jones, who had replaced the injured Milner. The least surprising thing about this whole day was Milner going off with a hamstring injury. That’s what happens when he plays three times in a week. It happened twice last season where he did his hamstring in the third game of the week.
Going back to the Ronaldo incident though. He doesn’t do that it if it’s Robbo, Trent, Virg, Hendo or whoever. His ego couldn’t handle being mugged off by a kid he’s probably never even heard of. A scouse kid at that.
The offence was probably deserving of more than a yellow but it’s not quite a red so I have no complaint about Taylor’s decision to only book him. He kicks the ball and not the player, even though he knows exactly what he’s doing. Bottom line, because he kicked the ball it’s very difficult to send him off for that.
There was a little skirmish afterwards in which Robbo was wagging his finger at Ronaldo, Fernandes gave a little push to Virg and then big Konate arrived to shove Fernandes out of the way. Ronaldo walked away from it all, with Curtis saying something to him. I’d love to know what it was, but if I had to take a guess it would be along the lines of “you mad, bro?”.
You could see they’d lost whatever composure they had and there was no way they were getting back into this game. They needed the half time whistle to arrive just to try and clear their heads and come up with an alternate plan, but before that happened we killed them stone dead with a fourth goal.
The first few times I watched that I wondered if Mo had actually been looking to put it in the other corner. I think Klopp hinted at something along those lines too afterwards. Having watched it over and over I now think he did exactly what he was trying to do. It’s clinical as fuck.
4-0 at half time, just as Scholesy predicted. Solskjaer responded by subbing Greenwood and sending on Pogba. That right there is a big part of their problem. Greenwood should never have been subbed. Ronaldo was the one that needed to go as it was all hands to the deck and that preening cunt isn’t going to do any dirty work for the team.
And if Pogba is not the answer to anything, unless the question is who is the most over-rated footballer on the planet. Last week he said “something has to change” after they lost at Leicester. The thing that changed was he was dropped, but sending him out there in a game like this when they were 4-0 down was never going to end well for them.
Pogba will have been fuming about that. Not just because he was on the bench, but because he was sent on when they were 4-0 down. Anyone would be pissed off by that, but you still have to be professional and he wasn’t. Within minutes he’d lost the ball in midfield (as he so often does) and it was 5-0. Hendo robbed him and then played the most exquisite of passes to release Mo who did the rest.
I thought he’d over ran that with a heavy second touch but he’s so quick he still got there and re-adjusted his feet to dink it past De Gea for his hat-trick. Unbelievable. What a player. I’m finding it increasingly difficult not to bow to the argument he’s the best we’ve had. I’m not there yet but my feeling is that soon I won’t be able to argue against it.
It was now just a case of how many we’d score, although Ronaldo did think he’d pulled one back with what was actually a really good finish. Shame he was offside hahahaha. If anyone was going to have disallowed at 0-5 I’mm glad it’s him, because none of the others would have give a fuck but this will have pissed him right off as he’s such a selfish twat.
Then Pogba saw red for a wild tackle that saw Naby have to go off on a stretcher. Hopefully it isn’t too serious and it’s just bruising as that would be a massive shame for him if he can’t build on what he did here.
Initially Taylor only gave a yellow but I can see why he did that. He only had one view of it in real time and it did look like Pogba got the ball before catching Naby. With the safety net of VAR in place, refs don’t need to do anything overly hasty now so he’s gone yellow and then waited to hear if he needed to take another look.
As soon as they showed the replay there was never any doubt he was going to overturn that decision. He could have sent Maguire off too for bringing down Jota as he went clean through. Had the scoreline been closer he may have done, but Maguire did get the ball as well as man so again, I can see why he made the decision he did.
He had a good game did Taylor. I was worried about him ahead of this, because why wouldn’t you be? Funnily enough though, United fans can’t stand him either and think he favours City. Maybe he does, I don’t know. I just know that having a Manchester ref in charge of a game involving a Manchester team and a Merseyside team is not a good idea. Fair play though, he was good. This time.
So 5-0 with half an hour left, but that’s how it finished. United will be embarrassed at the result but they should also be massively relieved that this wasn’t a scoreline for the ages. Like Leicester winning 9-0 at Southampton the other year.
While some fans like me watching on telly were thinking about what might have been, those inside Old Trafford won’t have given a fuck. They were too busy enjoying themselves and rightly so. I’ve been there when we’ve won and other than winning trophies there’s nothing like it. I’ve been there for some bad losses too, so everyone who was in that away end will have been having the time of their life as it means so much.
We’ve been on the receiving end of taunts from them for decades but the worm has definitely turned now. They’ve gone back into the pack and we’re up there fighting for titles and European Cups. These things go in cycles and it’s important to enjoy while you can because it can change quickly.
It was a shame that Curtis couldn’t put the cherry on the icing when he went through at the end. I’d have been buzzing for him to get one, not least because he’d probably have let Ronaldo know about on his way back for the restart.
So in closing, it feels fucking great finally see us go there and do what we’re supposed to do. Much of the focus will be on how bad they were but so what? It’s fair comment, they were absolutely shite. It doesn’t take away from what we did though and although it’s taken a while, it looks like the world has finally woken up to the fact we’re still really fucking good.
The post match on Sky was hilarious. Souey and Carra were really giving Neville a hard time and making him squirm as he did everything he could to blame everyone and everything else other than his mate Ole. He looked fucking haunted as he sat there, it was great.
What a man Souey is by the way. Before the game he was needling Neville and then at one point he turns to Carra and says “I told you we’d have a lot of fun today”. Fucking brilliant. The only thing missing was Roy Keane. Imagine what he’d have made of that.
Star man is Mo, obviously. I also want to single out Keita for what he did, and also Konate who looked so comfortable and composed. We’re so strong at centre half right now it’s almost unfair. Look at United and how shit their defenders are. Maguire cost more money that Virg, Joe and Joel combined.
Bobby was sneakily good too. Didn’t score and only really had one effort on goal, but he was popping up all over the pitch winning the ball back and linking play. Jota was sharp and a constant menace. That left sided role is where he’s best suited and if Sadio is having to fight for his spot that can only be a good thing as it will elevate his game.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Keita (Oxlade-Chamberlain) Milner (Jones); Salah, Firmino (Mané), Jota:
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