Arne Slot humiliated Erik ten Hag, who should have walked away from Man Utd after an embarrassing summer. Ryan Gravenberch was slightly better than Casemiro.
1) Not enough was made of how embarrassingly Man Utd conducted themselves this summer.
They kept their under-performing manager in place on the specific basis of one excellent game at the end of a historically dreadful season, but only after conducting a semi-public interview process for the position after which, by Erik ten Hag’s own admission “they eventually came to the conclusion” that, basically, no better option was readily available. They then surrounded him with an unprecedented amount of coaches with senior first-team experience on his staff while summarily failing to address one of the burning issues of his reign by sanctioning a summer of investment centred around players he had previously worked with.
It was always fanciful to think that after his club allowed a genuine career achievement to be laughably undermined, Ten Hag might have taken the decision away from Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s big old business brain by removing himself from a mess he could surely do without. The Dutchman’s professional pride would never have allowed it, particularly not after spending a whole campaign absolving himself of responsibility for incompetent tactics by simply pointing at a continuing cycle of injuries the club itself contributed to; this campaign was an expected opportunity to prove his acumen. But the way they treated him in those moments was shameful.
That one-year contract extension was never worth the pen Ten Hag signed it with. Neither he nor Man Utd are punching or reaching in this relationship; both are just meandering along, wasting time, kidding themselves into thinking they can make it work. That is fine in July when pre-season positivity is prevalent and the appetite can be sated by transfer rumours and signings, but when it comes to playing actual games and establishing even a vague sense of tactical identity again the entire facade collapses in on itself, especially when faced with a team possessing an actual idea of what it wants to do.
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2) And the problem was always that keeping Ten Hag would create a crippling fear of being made to look stupid. The message was implicit but clear: 8th with a negative goal difference for Man Utd is fine if you win a trophy. It was a bizarrely low bar set by a new regime otherwise desperate to come across as ruthless in its decision-making.
It was considerably more likely this arrangement would continue to fail than it suddenly starting to work. This is Chelsea on a far smaller and slightly less hilarious scale: a broken elite club struggling to realise that the simple act of plucking parts of a first-class operation (Omar Berrada from Manchester City, Dan Ashworth from Newcastle, Casemiro from Real Madrid) and shoving them together does not a first-class operation make, but digging a hole so deep they decide it is better to carry on in blind faith rather than trying to start again.
The “complete unity in our vision” which Ten Hag trumped in the summer already looks clouded; Ashworth’s “clear conclusion that Erik was the best partner for us to work with in driving up standards and outcomes” was ludicrous at the time and only seems more so with each game; Ratcliffe’s pledge in February to ensure “every person in management has to be world-class” has been impeded by the retention of a manager who is not world-class, at least not in this role at this time. But Man Utd have nestled themselves so unnecessarily deeply into this bed that they sort of have to lie in it at least for a few more aimless months with another season wasted.
3) Beating one of the few Premier League managers with a longer current tenure while losing to two installed only this summer makes for an uncomfortable juxtaposition across Manchester United’s opening three games.
Marco Silva was among those spoken to about potentially succeeding Ten Hag, so the opening victory over Fulham must have felt sweet. But Fabian Hurzeler helped expose some awkward truths and Arne Slot quite frankly humiliated his compatriot.
It completely undercuts the argument that Ten Hag needs more time, much like how the revolving transfer door erodes the eternal point that the latest Man Utd manager Just Needs More Signings, regardless of how many they have already made.
The structures and systems at Brighton and Liverpool were undeniably far kinder to inherit than the one Ten Hag took on, but he was appointed two years ago and this is his team: six transfers he personally vouched for and two academy graduates he gave debuts to made up the majority of a starting line-up which looked adequate for about 15 minutes before crumbling.
None of the Ten Hag excuses are relevant. Not the injuries, not transfers, not the “fine margins” he spent almost all of last season lamenting, to the point he could not stop himself from referencing refereeing decisions in a September defeat to Arsenal up until May. And certainly not the need for patience, because Man Utd have been precisely this poor and inconsistent for longer than is worth sticking with. That was the case at the end of last season and nothing has changed.
4) For Man Utd to still be ambling around in search of meaning more than a decade into their post-Ferguson years must be particularly frustrating when Liverpool have embraced being Kloppless with such confident authority.
It would be difficult to find two finer examples of how and how not to approach that transition from a dynastical manager. Man Utd are still dealing with residual issues from 11 years ago, but Jurgen Klopp deep-cleaned the house, left chocolates on the table and wrote a note about how to sort the dodgy boiler before handing over the keys.
Slot has embraced the challenge, too, never complaining a sub-standard summer and instead welcoming the opportunity to work with the players he has. There are legitimate complaints to be made about Liverpool’s transfer window but he was always designed to be their most important signing. The early evidence suggests he has taken a fine blueprint and improved it, bringing more control and solidity while still providing a platform for some uniquely brilliant forward players.
There will probably be a stutter or a stumble at some point. They might even concede a goal. This may be a golden period of the handover which wears off soon. But this Liverpool team already feels more like Slot’s than Man Utd does Ten Hag’s.
5) Any insinuation that Slot has simply continued Klopp’s work without changing much can be countered by pointing to Ryan Gravenberch and exhaling lightly from the nose. In an inevitably quite Dutch game of association football, he played with the most courage and conviction.
His interception and driving run from midfield for the first goal in the 35th minute summed up the two strengths he displayed most often at Old Trafford, but Gravenberch took seven minutes to exert his dominance. Receiving a pass zipped into him by Virgil van Dijk, he left Kobbie Mainoo for dead with his first touch, sprinted forward and started the move which ended in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s offside goal.
It was an early let-off and a warning about midfield command which neither Manchester United’s manager nor players chose to heed.
6) It helped Gravenberch and his teammates that Casemiro was one of their initial adversaries. It is difficult to nail down a single word which could sum up both his display here and general performance levels over the past 12 months, because it honestly doesn’t feel like ‘sh*t’ does it justice.
This is more existential. This is ‘the Saudi transfer window remains open until Monday but signing him might actually undo all that hard sportswashing work’ bad.
That message Casemiro sent to his agent when his signing had not quite gone through but Man Utd were being hammered 4-0 by Brentford, about how he will “fix this”, remains hilarious. The Brazilian’s role in the first two goals here was catastrophic – as his half-time substitution implied – but that part about midway through the first half at 0-0 where he literally just actually gave up by the touchline because Dominik Szoboszlai was pressing him so relentlessly and he could see no passing options was just sad.
If he plays again this season Ten Hag should be laughed out of whichever stadium is given the rare honour of watching such peculiar performance art. And if he doesn’t play again then Man Utd have about £300,000 a week floating around in their reserves. What a club.
7) And really that is the pertinent point with Gravenberch, Casemiro and their respective managers. Liverpool didn’t get the midfielder Slot craved so he worked around it, found viable solutions and has discovered a way to play a relatively weak hand strongly. Man Utd took so long signing a £50m replacement for a £70m deadweight who was proven not fit for purpose ages ago that Manuel Ugarte was not eligible to play in this, their third game and second defeat of the season, and Ten Hag is already warning it could “months” to integrate him into the team anyway.
One of those clubs is often derided by its own fan as unambitious. The other remains entirely unserious. These 90 minutes showed which is more preferable.
8) Man Utd had a bright start but once Liverpool found their pressing groove the direction of travel was only headed one way. And there are many ways in which to present that, including this: the hosts made one solitary pass in the third minute; it was intercepted and should have led to a goal, but Virgil van Dijk’s ball to Diogo Jota was slightly overhit after he read a complacent Bruno Fernandes square pass.
The captain was not alone in falling so carelessly for those traps but it did set the tone somewhat. Liverpool made nine interceptions and the vast majority led to a scoring chance. The first goal came from a Casemiro pass Gravenberch pounced on; the second and third were a direct result of Casemiro and then Mainoo not releasing the ball quickly enough. Liverpool forced all three with their energy.
9) Lisandro Martinez was culpable on a couple of occasions, being targeted for forced turnovers in his own defensive third, but it’s alright because he clattered Szoboszlai from behind on the halfway line at 1-0 down and thus is really hard.
Martinez is an excellent defender when he focuses on defending, his positioning and anticipation for the second goal notwithstanding. The whole Butcher gimmick really ought to be retired because it is so humorously and ironically small-time. The closest he got to Luis Diaz all game was when he ushered him off the pitch during a substitution.
10) Diaz was brilliant, taking both of his goals wonderfully and otherwise working the opposition defence into the ground. But for all his apparent development over the summer, there remains only one ruler of this Liverpool attack.
The Salah future narrative has already become tiresome but it exists for a reason. The way he has become an elite creator at 32 with little to no impact on his goalscoring input is remarkable. The cross for the first was basic but the pass for Diaz’s second was the sort of unconventional delivery Salah has mastered and precious few defenders can predict or counter.
Even after scoring in his seventh consecutive game at Old Trafford to settle matters, it was Salah tracking back to dispossess Toby Collyer and launch another counter in the 60th minute. The post-match quotes about being “a little surprised” how easy Liverpool found a game which “could have finished five or six” was suitably ruthless.
11) He wasn’t lying either. Almost immediately from kick-off after making it 3-0, Salah should have scored when Martinez lost the ball again in the middle of his own half. That capacity to capitulate and concede quickfire goals has been a staple of Ten Hag’s Man Utd, particularly in this fixture. It is a collective emotional flaw which must be addressed.
12) Mainoo was robbed by Alexis Mac Allister for the third goal and honestly it isn’t tough to see why he might be struggling. The novice breath of fresh air thriving for his country has been saddled with an expensive burden of a partner for his club and for the second half was simultaneously the youngest and most experienced of a midfield pairing drowning in a sea of Liverpool players.
Mainoo is far from the only one lacking support at Man Utd but it is absurd how much they have come to lean on a 19-year-old to carry the entire burden of the most important position on the pitch, and negligent from the manager not to establish and work on an actual midfield structure in which to place him.
13) It would be fascinating to see what Ten Hag does work on in training, because defending back-post crosses cannot possibly be on the agenda.
After the absolute farce of the Brighton winner, quite how Man Utd contrived to find themselves in almost the exact same position in literally their next game is a mystery. Casemiro’s poor pass did create an overload but why was Noussair Mazraoui so high up, why did no-one cover him at right-back, why did Casemiro not make more of an effort to help out at centre-half and what force pulled Matthijs de Ligt so far to the left, leaving Diaz and Szoboszlai to mark each other as the cross came in?
These are basic organisational issues which plagued the club last season and is already making them look amateurish at the start of this one. No matter what players he selects, a coach should be embarrassed to concede that sort of goal, never mind twice against different opponents in the space of a week.
14) The Ibrahima Konate and Van Dijk pairing was imperious but hardly overworked. It is impossible to see the seams in Rasmus Hojlund’s Joshua Zirkzee costume and while the substitution of Alejandro Garnacho after 68 minutes was booed, it was a welcome reminder that he was actually still playing.
The Argentinean was almost impressively anonymous but the insinuation seemed to be that it should have been Marcus Rashford taken off instead. Yet he created the two best chances, both missed by Zirkzee, with sublime crosses even as this shadow of his former self.
Amad, in his 22-minute cameo, was probably the hosts’ best player. He created more chances and had more touches in the opposition penalty area than any teammate, even showing a willingness to actually carry the ball forward. No wonder he was dropped to the bench from the start.
It is also incredible that he is called upon before unused substitute Antony, whose £82m fee still cannot get him minutes in one of the league’s most under-performing, uninspired attacks.
15) By the end, Liverpool were actively just taking the p*ss. A flowing passing move involving Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Salah and Conor Bradley ended with Szoboszlai being found unmarked in the area. He should have shot but took a touch trying to bait Mazraoui into a slide tackle and the opportunity was gone.
It prompted some phenomenal won’t-somebody-think-of-the-children pearl-clutching fume from Jamie Carragher (“That’s just ridiculous, it’s unprofessional”) and Gary Neville (“He should be absolutely rollocked by the rest of his team-mates for that”), when really it was just quite funny and precisely the sort of thing which should be encouraged when 3-0 up with ten actual minutes to go at actual Old Trafford.
16) With the tune to Opus’ Live is Life not quite echoing but certainly resonating around Old Trafford as full-time drew closer, it already feels safe to say that Klopp’s farewell speech went slightly better than Ferguson’s.
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