A retirement game for Casemiro, another reckoning for Erik ten Hag and – maybe even more importantly – an arrival match for Arne Slot. The new Liverpool manager’s biggest win and easiest game so far was the one that was supposed to be the most testing: a 3-0 at his club’s greatest rivals. Then again, this was just another in a modern series of handsome Liverpool victories over Manchester United, even at Old Trafford. The results stay the same even as the faces change. Well, some of the faces.
Before the inevitable obituary for Casemiro’s top-level career, it is worth celebrating how good Luis Diaz and Mohammed Salah were, particularly given how both have had their own futures questioned. The Colombian was newly clinical. Salah was both selfless in setting up the second and brilliantly tunnel-visioned in claiming Liverpool’s third.
Only two of them were a consequence of Casemiro’s tragically declining abilities as a midfielder. It is genuinely sad to see someone who was so brilliant reduced to this, even as Liverpool revelled in it.
For all that so much of the post-game analysis will inevitably labour on Casemiro’s pass to the resurgent Ryan Gravenberch and then the way he lost the ball to Diaz for the Colombian’s second, there is something bigger here. Liverpool didn’t get the No 6 that Slot wanted either, in what could have been a damagingly public failed pursuit of Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi. There were even shades of how David Moyes couldn’t get Cesc Fabregas to Manchester United in 2013.
Slot still worked around it, though, so Liverpool mostly worked well. They weren’t perfect but then they didn’t need to be, since they were still so promising. They were often exhilarating as they surged into that space in front of United’s goal. Ten Hag is left looking to Manuel Ugarte to fill those familiar gaps. There was a moment in the first half, when it was just 1-0, that the United manager and new assistant Ruud van Nistelrooy were in intense discussion while repeatedly pointing to the area in front of Andre Onana’s box. That was of course supposed to be where Casemiro was patrolling, and he was hauled off at half time for 20-year-old Toby Collyer.
Ugarte may well fill that defensive role so badly required, but that’s a familiar refrain for a system that has so far had a tendency to chew up midfielders. It’s always like one more signing is required.
Slot didn’t get that signing and, within a mere three games, has Liverpool playing to much more of a defined tactical idea than United has with Ten Hag. Many will no doubt point to how the former Feyenoord coach walked into a much more favourable setting given Jurgen Klopp had overseen an upgrade of Liverpool’s squad over the last two seasons. That is also to overlook something crucial, though.
For one, the modern history of these major managerial transitions illustrate it often only looks good when the all-conquering patriarch is still there. The evidence of Kenny Dalglish to Graeme Souness, Alex Ferguson to Moyes and Arsene Wenger to Unai Emery shows it is far from seamless no matter what preparation you think you have had. Slot may yet face those difficulties.
Secondly, though, Slot wasn’t facing a manager on the same footing. Ten Hag has been here for two years and United still produced… this. There are still so many times when you wonder what exactly his team are trying to do, or what is even particularly good about them, bar occasional fast breaks.
Instead, so many of the same problems presented themselves. There was an element of recent history repeating itself as farce for the opening goal, which essentially won the game. Just as Brighton beat United 2-1 with a header from three men unmarked at the back post in their last game, Liverpool here benefited from two free men at the other post. Diaz just nodded in over teammate Dominik Szoboszlai, rather than an actual United defender.
It is an indictment that Slot has Liverpool looking much more coherent already. That wasn’t a given.
But, speaking of managerial changes, this points to almost the biggest issue of all at United. The club’s new Ineos-led hierarchy made Ten Hag look and feel a lame duck by essentially interviewing him for his own job in the summer, speaking to other coaches, and still persisting with him.
It is another situation that doesn’t have too many precedents in the modern game, but fosters the sense it’s going to end up the same old way. It’s at the very least going to remain a huge issue unless results are, well, excellent. United are instead again getting eviscerated by their biggest rivals. The Liverpool supporters revelled in that situation as much as the result, gleefully singing “Ten Hag’s at the wheel” to go with their inflatable seven-zero to celebrate their biggest win over United.
This was embarrassing in a different way. That’s been said about a few Liverpool wins over United in the last few years. The fact this is continuing as Liverpool themselves go through a drastic change illustrates the scale of their issues.
They go beyond Casemiro. They evidently need more than Ugarte slotting in immediately. Otherwise, there might be more of the same.
It is to Slot’s credit, by contrast, that he has kept that going. Difficult times will of course come. They just don’t look like they’re going to be against Ten Hag’s United.
