Not exactly surprising was it? Even when we’re in a good run we never get anything at Old Trafford so this result was entirely predictable. We played pretty well for the most part, better than we usually do here anyway, but it wasn’t enough because we made too many mistakes.
For some inexplicable reason I felt good about our chances when I woke up on Sunday. I’ve been on such a massive downer of late and my faith in the team (specifically the forwards) has been shaken to it’s core, yet I had a feeling we’d do well in this one.
I don’t know why that was but I suspect it’s probably because it was the cup, which meant less pressure, and that expectations were pretty low and that also means less pressure. United were expected to win this because they’re top of the table and our form has been awful since the turn of the year. So in some ways this was a free hit for us.
Even when I saw the team I thought we might come through the tie, although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about Rashford up against young Rhys Williams. Sadio not starting also weakened us but the flip side to that is it’s good being able to call on someone like that from the bench when the game becomes more stretched.
So all in all I still felt quite hopeful. And the way we started the game was great. We were on the front foot, positive and we looked more like us.
We had a chance in the first minute when some nice play got Trent in down the side and his low cross was scrambled away. Great start, something to build on, and we did build on it. We even managed to finally score a goal when Bobby’s brilliant through ball was superbly finished by Mo. At fucking last.
I actually thought we were superb right up until the moment they scored. After that we definitely lost some confidence for a while. It was a shitty goal to concede but the warning signs had been there. It was obvious what United were doing and I thought it was naive that we allowed it to continue without fixing it.
When our full backs went forward they just left Rashford and Greenwood upfield in the space they vacated. Every single time. And when they got the ball back they found those two early and they were able to get a run at Williams or Fabinho. It was just to easy for them.
Greenwood had already broke clear once only to greedily try and score himself when he had two players available for cutbacks. Williams did a good job there in blocking off the angle for the cutback to Van Der Beek but Greenwood only ever really looked like he wanted to score himself, and he was never beating Alisson from that angle. That said, it was a warning that we never heeded.
Their goal was just far too easy. We lost the ball on the edge of their box when Pogba made a sliding challenge and won the ball. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem but too often in this game we were just wide open.
We’re usually pretty good at ‘protecting our attacks’ but when you take Henderson and Fabinho out of the midfield it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that we’re more vulnerable as they’re as good as anybody out there at that side of the game.
I also think maybe the lack of goals has become such a mental thing that maybe the midfield were over-committing in attack and not thinking about preventing the counter attack. Milner spent more time in the opposition box in this game than Wijnaldum has all season for example.
We didn’t just get caught once, it looked like it was going to happen virtually every time we lost possession. And while it’s easy to point the finger at Williams for this I don’t see it as being his fault at all. The second goal was a mistake, that’s on him, but how wide open we looked to counter attacks was not his fault. He was the victim of that crime, not the perpetrator.
That equaliser just looked like a really shit goal to concede though, especially as we were 1-0 up at the time. If you’re trailing you can concede like that as everyone piles forward looking to get back into the game but we were 1-0 up and in control, so to concede on the break like that was a sickener. It was Arsenal like in fact.
Rashford did well but I don’t think Milner covered himself in glory trying to cut out the pass. He could have been further over and closer to Greenwood maybe, or he could have not committed to trying to head it away and instead just concentrated on staying between Greenwood and the goal.
Unfortunately the pass was just close enough for him to think he could get his head on it. He couldn’t, and Greenwood lashed a shot into the bottom corner. That seemed to really knock us for six and for the rest of the half they looked more dangerous.
It always felt like they were one pass away from getting in behind us and the game was really on a knife edge for us. Rashford got away from Williams just before half time after the kid dived in needlessly thinking he could win the ball. Criticise him if you like but 19 year old defenders do things like this. It’s completely normal.
That equaliser just sucked the air out of our balloon and you could visibly see we weren’t the same side for the rest of the half. Then we went 2-1 down early in the second half with another really bad goal. Thiago didn’t win it midfield (a feature of this game) and the loose ball broke to Cavani. As they tried to do all day (and most of the time failed) he looked to release Rashford early.
Williams was in position to cut it out but he misjudged it and could only get a little touch on it to send Rashford clear. There was no way he wasn’t scoring there. That’s the position he always wants to be in and Alisson had no chance.
I thought it might have been offside but given the way they’ve completely fucked up that law I expect they’d have given it anyway and claimed that because Williams touched the ball while trying to intercept it, that ‘reset the phase’ or whatever bollocks they want to use to justify favouring certain teams.
Williams should be cutting that out though so that mistake is on him. It wasn’t inexperience, that was just an error, but I’ll say it again, young centre backs make mistakes. That’s why you never see them playing for the top clubs. They need to make their mistakes somewhere else (either on loan or in a difference position) because when you make a mistake at centre back there’s only the goalkeeper who can help you out.
Do you think Van Dijk or Matip weren’t making mistakes like that at 19? Or Alan Hansen? Because they were. It goes with the territory and this is why Klopp would rather weaken his midfield by playing Henderson at the back than select a kid who has done well but just isn’t ready. It isn’t fair to Rhys or to the other players for that matter.
It’s not really fair to him either that we just play exactly the same way as we would if Matip had been back there. He’s thrown in there and expected to play like an experienced international defender. He didn’t have anyone babysitting him (he even had a midfield player as a partner) and he wasn’t given any kind of protection. Everyone just played as though we had Matip or Gomez back there and not a young kid who was in over his head.
I just feel bad for Williams and I hope he doesn’t let this ruin his confidence. This is not his fault and he shouldn’t be scapegoated for this loss. Playing centre back for Liverpool is a lot more difficult than it is playing centre back for anyone else in this league. Only Man City compares really, and now I’m not even sure about that because their tactics are now much more ‘centre back friendly’ than they were and they don’t have deal with as many one v ones as they did previously.
Our lads though? It’s fucking hard. Because the full backs are so high up that when the opposition has pace and can play on the break, it’s a huge test, particularly if the midfielders aren’t protecting as they should. Rhys got very little help from Trent or Gini (who was playing on that side of the midfield three).
Williams could be in Burnley’s back four and look great because he’s got a full back on his outside that never moves out of position, a bank of four midfielders sat in front and the only thing behind him is the 18 yard box and a goalkeeper.
Playing for us? You’re on the halfway line most of the time with only Fabinho to help and when you turn around there’s acres of green grass behind and you can find yourself in a foot race with opponents who are quicker than you. It’s really pretty fucking scandalous that he’s been put in this situation. He was playing non-league football last season remember.
There’s a lot to like about the kid. His passing is really crisp, he’s good in the air and he seems to have a fantastic mentality. I actually think overall he’s been outstanding this season all things considered. He’s done as well as, or actually much better, than could have been expected.
The mistakes he’s made in games haven’t caused him to go to pieces and he seems to have the ability to keep his head up and that’s a good sign for the future. He’ll need a short memory and it would be a good idea to avoid social media. Hopefully he’s getting good advice on that.
The lack of pace is a concern but I’d be interested to know if he was any slower than Matip. I doubt there’s too much in it, but experience makes such a difference in positioning and decision making. Williams doesn’t have that and frankly won’t have it for several more years. Again, not his fault. This is why 19 year olds don’t play centre back for top clubs.
Anyway, at 2-1 I thought we were done and for a while we looked like we were. At one stage I was worried we were going to lose all idea of shape and get torn apart on the break as we got desperate and tried to force an equaliser. It didn’t look like we had much left to offer but then something changed.
I don’t know exactly what the trigger was but I think it might have been Firmino. He gave the ball away dreadfully and then something just seemed to snap as he went chasing off to win it back. He did win it, and then he did it again. And for the next few minutes the whole team was more energised and we began to look dangerous again.
Milner put one over the bar on the stretch and he was becoming more and more influential now. The equaliser came when we pressed them and eventually forced a sloppy pass from Cavani that Milner intercepted. He played it to Bobby and then continued his run into the box. Bobby squared it to him but Milner cleverly let it run for Mo who scuffed a shot that went through the legs of the keeper. De Gea would defo have saved that but thankfully he wasn’t playing.
That was the bit of luck we haven’t had in weeks. Were things finally turning around for us?
*Narrator’s voice.
No, they weren’t.
I really thought we had them now and we had chances to win it. Sadio had come on and we were on top. Trent had a shot saved and Mo missed two good really good openings. Then they were given a soft free-kick on the edge of the box and the rest was entirely predictable.
I’m not complaining about Pawson’s decision to award a free-kick. I don’t think it was a foul but it was one of those that could have gone either way and Cavani just used his experience to win that. Sometimes you’d get that, other times you wouldn’t. It’s typical of how things are going for us and how things are going for them.
Portuguese Gylffi took the free kick and put it in the far bottom corner. Maybe Alisson could have done better but to me the real issue was Thiago crouching down and allowing it to go over his head. Nice one lad. Way to take one for the team.
He’s been massively underwhelming to this point. I don’t think he’s playing badly and he’s done lots of things to show just how special he is. But he hasn’t helped the team at all. Not his fault, he’s got to get used to how we play and he’s probably still trying to find top form and fitness after being sidelined for months by that Everton shithouse.
It’s just really frustrating that we thought he was going to really give us something a bit different against deep lying teams, but he just hasn’t. I don’t like him in the number six role for two reasons. I think it restricts his creativity and he’s also not the most mobile.
There was a moment late on when he had to chase back after Pogba and it was seriously alarming to me. He couldn’t run. His legs had gone and his head was wobbling all over the place. He looked like one of those marathon runners who get to the home straight and they’re completely fucked, but they don’t want any help getting over the line so they just kind of wobble their way to the finish.
Thiago and Henderson with Fabinho operating behind them is pretty mouth watering to me, but we aren’t going to see that until next season because FSG think it’s ok for us to rip out our midfield to patch up the defence.
It’s so hard at the moment but it’s like I said after Burnley. My thoughts now are mostly that I feel bad for Klopp and the players. They need help, both in the transfer market and from the fans. They’re getting neither. They’re completely on their own. The second part of that is unavoidable. The first is something that is within the control of the club but they seemingly just won’t do anything about it.
Klopp has to try and take the positives from this just to keep the player’s heads up. There were positives even if it doesn’t really feel that way after yet another shitty result.
We were much better going forward even if it did come at a cost at the other end. Mo scored twice but should have had at least three and probably four. The first finish was sumptuous, the second one was shite but he got lucky, and there were two others he could have done better with.
So that’s a good thing as at least we created clear openings. It felt as though Firmino created every one of those (he defo created three of them) so that’s good too. It was a real mixed bag from him because in between those moments of quality he was generally shite.
It’s sod’s law that when we finally remember how to score we forget how to defend. We conceded as many in this one game as we had in the previous five games of this shitty run. So frustrating, but when you are forced to field an inexperienced kid in the most important position on the pitch (not including goalkeeper) then this is the risk you run, especially against a side who thrive on counter attacks and who have the most in form forward in the country playing in direct opposition to the kid.
Williams was thrown in at the deep end into a fixture he ordinarily wouldn’t have been anywhere near, but you can’t blame Klopp for picking him as what choice did he have? Literally his only option was choosing between Williams or Phillips, and neither is ideal.
I’d have gone with Phillips because he’s got four years more experience and to me that’s vital at centre back. But I don’t see them every day in training and Williams is probably considerably better. That’s why he was picked.
The real problem here is the club not backing Klopp in his recommendations on who we can bring in. He’s made recommendations, we know this because he told us last week. We also know he can’t make the decision on whether we can buy anyone because he told us that too.
So, we were knocked out of the FA Cup because we had to play an inexperienced kid at the heart of the defence. With Matip or Gomez in this team we don’t lose this game. I’m not even mentioning Virgil because we didn’t need the world’s best defender in order to win this game. We just needed someone who is ready for this level of football and we didn’t have it.
So yeah, we’re out of this competition because the owners wouldn’t back the manager. You can argue we’re out of the title race for the same reason (for me there’s far more to it than that, but it is a factor) and unless Virgil makes an all time record recovery for an ACL injury we can forget about the Champions League too. And I don’t want him coming back that quickly because history shows that players who come back sooner than nine months from that injury usually suffer all kinds of other problems in their first year back.
Klopp is having to wrap Matip in cotton wool but that won’t make a difference anyway. We’ll get another game or two out of him before he picks up another knock, and we don’t even have Hendo to plug in there at the moment either.
Against Spurs we’ll have Matip available to partner Fabinho, but if Hendo isn’t back in midfield then I don’t like our chances. I don’t actually like our chances regardless if I’m honest, because there’s a tried and tested way of getting results against us this season and we’re about to come up against the fucking king of that way of playing.
Spurs will sit in and use Kane and Son. They tried that not so long ago at Anfield and almost stole an undeserved point. We were a much different animal back then than we are currently though. I’m dreading Thursday if I’m being truly honest.
Star man could (should?) have been Milner but I'm going with Salah, not least because I've been so critical of him recently. So credit where it's due. It wasn’t his best all around game but he usually does fuck all against these so two goals and another couple of near misses is massive progress. More of the same on Thursday please Mo.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Williams, Fabinho, Robertson; Thiago (Shaqiri), Wijnaldum (Mané), Milner; Salah, Firmino (Origi), Jones:
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