Liverpool vs. Manchester United: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

Boom!

Well, this is one of those days when I'm not so pleased that overseas subscribers who record the game during the night ask us not to put the scoreline in the heading.

That's really tough after a 7-0 win against Man United.

SEVEN-NIL.

When will people listen to me?! I said that this team would come good when everyone is fit and sharp, and that the new younger players will hit their stride, as a new team gels.

Liverpool had been written off, with just about every ex-Man United legend (and leg-end) saying that the teams were moving in different directions.

Well, they were heading in very different directions today. Rio Ferdinand said there's only one club Jude Bellingham should join, in classic Rio style. His timing is impeccable.

I have constantly defended the clear attributes of Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez.

Each is getting better every game, and are younger than Mo Salah when he arrived six years ago.

I said that the Real Madrid result was a freak scoreline, albeit this is even more attention-grabbing. But this was not a smash-and-grab by the Reds, unlike Madrid's lucky win, in what was an otherwise even game when the Spanish giants visited.

A few weeks ago I mentioned when Liverpool scored seven at Crystal Palace from about eight shots, and this was seven from eight shots on target, albeit 18 overall; plus about five penalty and red-card claims as Andy Madley, the ref, basically gave up on any discipline, just like Man United. The other 'seven' today could have been the players United had left on the pitch.

What I didn't foresee was Fabinho returning to form so quickly, but otherwise I felt the reducing of the average age (including the vital Ibrahima Konaté) – and the time the new players needed to settle-in – would reap dividends; whereas United brought in a guy who's nearly 30 on loan, and three guys who are in their 30s, and brought in a tiny centre-back for a fortune, and a showboating seal for £80m on the wing.

Half of Liverpool's outfield players were aged 19-24. (Incidentally, 1924 was almost the last time United lost a game by such a margin.)

Maybe United needed their buys, and they have improved; but today, Gakpo (23), Núñez (23), Harvey Elliott (19), Konaté (23), Trent Alexander-Arnold (part of the old-guard at 24) and then as a sub, Stefan Bajcetic (18), took the piss.

You can keep your 5'9" centre-backs who play about as well as Steve Bruce, aged 62, would. (I agree with a lot of what Erik ten Hag has done at United, but No, No, No.)

I've tried telling people that this is an impressive new Liverpool team emerging, and some of the record-breaking pressing statistics suggest a return to the energy of old, if not more.

Mo Salah – a genius today – looks reborn, and if Roberto Firmino wasn't crying after the ovation when he struck home the seventh goal, I almost was. There's a changing of the guard, but Firmino isn't done yet.

The scoreline, as with the 5-2 loss to Madrid, is a little freakish, but the second-half felt like a red tsunami, washing everything into the back of the United net, or close.

For a team heading in the wrong direction they seem to be moving up the table pretty fast.

I'll get onto the glorious details of the game later in the piece, but first, I want to share this:

Penalties were the topic beforehand, with Jürgen Klopp asked about the Reds' failure to get one for almost a year; which led me to update some research I've done over the past five years, and it now shows that out of all Premier League teams between 2015 and 2023, Liverpool have to score more goals (15.4) than anyone else before getting a penalty, whereas for United it's a penalty for every 8.8 goals (and in that tally are the penalties they score, too).

Across Klopp's entire tenure, Liverpool also rank a miserable 10th for the most penalties per season in the Premier League. I published a piece with all the data yesterday:

Facts: LFC Rank 10th in Klopp Era for PL Penalties Won, and Other Not 'Spot-On' Stuff for Reds

Liverpool could have had penalties today and United could have had red cards. The referee and VAR bottled them all, but in the second half, as they conceded goal after goal, United made it a very difficult game to take charge of. Still, the wait for a penalty goes on.

Anyway, back to talking about the game, and there’s a lot to get through ...

The second half of my comments and those of the others follow for subscribers only.