I don't usually bother with making a score prediction but I felt almost completely sure that the game would be 0-0 again or maybe 1-1. You could sense from the caution Mourinho and Klopp were showing in the pressers that they were unusually wary of their opposition and not going to be risking much.
This was reflected in first 20 minutes by how start/stop everything was. The middle third was a swamp with very little space to pass through and no real channels to run. It's near impossible to look good in this kind of game and I think we had the right tactic in playing balls long in order to get in behind Liverpool's press. We seemed to be getting some kind of foothold before Pogba decided to start his volleyball career and hand Liverpool an undeserved goal. This was completely out of the blue and we spent the rest of the game playing catch-up.
The obvious positive is that we kept working until we got the goal back (at home, for this kind of investment, I should hope so) and perhaps if we had a little more time we would've broken through to win the game. Unfortunately, our end product again wasn't there and has cost us yet more points that we desperately need.
Coming away from this, I think we are on the cusp of being nailed-on for top 4 in upcoming seasons, provided we make the right improvements. This game rammed home the fact that our attack is suffering without quality fullbacks. Valencia has gotten a lot of praise on here for his efforts this season but we simply must do better than him. He is fine as a squad player but we need a RB who can consistently put in dangerous crosses. So many of Valencia's plays into the box are just lobs and he is inaccurate to boot. Darmian did a good job of protecting the left but he did absolutely nothing to take pressure off Martial whenever he was making runs to the line. We need top - top - level FBs on both sides, especially with Ibra in the team who can utilize his height.
There's been an interesting thread on our midfielders and some seem to think that we're okay with our current roster. Did this game help to change your mind? The 2nd half is what our MF looks like when Carrick isn't playing and Pogba is doing his standard choke job against top 4 opposition. Liverpool were free to play balls from middle positions into our box almost at will and Herrera was running around like a headless chicken while Pogba was busy combing his hair. Pogba should have come off after the 1st half, he was that awful, but he simply can't because he has no reasonable replacement. Unless you consider current-day Schweinsteiger or Fellaini as replacements.
And speaking of Fellaini, Jose was poor with his in-game management again. Takes off Martial, shunts Rooney onto the wing, and sticks Fellaini in the middle. This smacks of when LVG was here. I don't know for the life of me how Rashford did not see the pitch when we needed as many fast legs as we could to takes runs at Liverpool's defence. This was the same old plan B we've seen before, only it happened to work this time. And what's worse, this will only give Jose justification to keep doing it!
The positive players were certainly DDG, Mkhitarian, Herrera (considering how much he was needing to do), and Fellaini for bringing the impact we needed. Everyone else was meh to okay, with the exception of Pogba who should be shaved bald as punishment. On a scale of 10, I give us a 5, absolute bare minimum of a draw.
