Liverpool’s hunt at Old Trafford
Imagine two packs of hunters, walking through the forest in search of lunch. Pack A has got the ultimate skillset; agility, strength, and intelligence. Meanwhile, pack B are on a lower level in terms of agility, strength and intelligence but know how to work together as a collective.
Pack A hunts individually, everyone goes away and eventually they come back to share lunch. On the other hand, pack B hunts together as their skillset doesn’t provide them the luxury of hunting individually.
Who will hunt faster and win the prize? pack A or B? The answer will take us down a never ending rabbit hole. But if we slightly changed the variables, the result is unanimous. If we substituted pack B with a much more individually developed pack that also maintains the coherence and the organization of pack B, pack A is only left with their tears to drink.
In the battle of the individual versus the collective, there’s an unwritten assumption that the collective lacks in terms of individual brilliance. That collectives don’t have the members who can carry the team, in time of need.
However, in reality the collective has two PFA Players’ Player of the year winners, two Premier League Golden Boot winners, and two PFA Young Player of the Year winners. In addition to other individuals who are on the highest level but won’t have their names showing up in a pub quiz in 20 years time.
Liverpool have the individuals, but the individuals are elevated by the collective and vice versa. The collective is also managed by a serial winner who is the forefront of an incredible staff behind him. All in all, the highest quality a football team can dream of.
On the other side of this rivalry, we have got an inexperienced manager who thrives on man-management in a world where the slightest tweak can turn you into a Champions League winner.
Early morning, the two packs move out to start the hunt but the audience watching already have a tingling feeling of who’s gonna win.
The win at Old Trafford will go down as one of the greatest wins in Liverpool’s history. A peculiar pressing scheme from Manchester United in the first 5 minutes, coupled with their unimaginative 2–2 build up structure and the indefinite search of any attacking patterns made it simpler for Liverpool.
The high pressing using Naby Keita and James Milner — then Curtis Jones — to take Fred and Scott McTominay out of the build up was lauded by Juergen Klopp after the game. Moreover, Roberto Firmino’s ethereal performance tempted the German manager to say that there will be books written in the future about how the Brazilian interpreted the false 9 position.
The passing combinations on the right side of the pitch with Firmino shifting there only made it worse for Manchester United, but there was also another clear role for Keita offensively in this game.
The Guinean midfielder constantly positioned himself behind Fred to make runs towards Manchester United’s penalty box. Firmino’s role, dropping in-between the lines turns the focus towards him, allowing Keita more time to make these runs untracked. These runs are also helped by Manchester United’s decision to position Marcus Rashford centrally in the defensive phase rather than wide to provide more protection for Luke Shaw who is constantly in a 1 v 2 situation— the reason is simply to have better options on the transition when United win the ball back.
Keita was constantly positioning himself in free space, out of the sights of Fred. Looking to attack the box as Shaw is busy with Mohamed Salah….
…. and demanding the ball when he realized there’s an opportunity to attack the space with the nearby United players hypnotized by Firmino’s presence.
It didn’t take long for Keita to affect the game. Positioned initially behind Fred who had moved up to press Jordan Henderson, then starting his run once Firmino received the ball in between the lines. As when all eyes are on the Brazilian, Keita can make the dart forward. It’s important to note where Rashford is when United are in the defensive phase…..
….cause had Keita been marked, the space Trent Alexander-Arnold had out wide is frightening. However in the below situation after Firmino played Salah through, the logical pass from Salah was towards the onrushing Keita….
….and the Liverpool midfielder easily made it 1–0.
8 minutes later a similar scenario presents itself. Keita making a run into space while Fred and the rest of the United players are focusing on the ball on the other side of the pitch. Luckily for them Salah has dropped, meaning that Shaw can cover Keita’s run. That isn’t the full story though. Again the wide United player on the left of midfield, Bruno Fernandes here, is opting to stay centrally in case United retrieved the ball instead of tracking Arnold.
Keita’s run forced Shaw narrower resulting in a mishap between the left back and Harry Maguire which meant that the ball fell to Salah on the edge of the box, and resulting in a free Arnold out wide with Bruno one yard behind too many. Salah found Arnold….
….before the Liverpool right back sliced it on the ground towards Diogo Jota at the far post. 2–0
Manchester United’s lack of coverage for Shaw out wide isn’t something new. This has been a recurrent issue based on United favoring to play on the counter, which in fairness at times benefited the team from Manchester. But in this game it was clearly exploited, and in the third goal it was Keita again starting his run from Fred’s blind side with Shaw moving inside to track Salah…
….whose shot was deflected off Maguire, only to fall into the path of Keita who was already starting his run before Jota passed the ball to Salah.
The result? 3–0.
Keita’s runs into the box worked in tandem with Firmino’s perfection of the false 9 role and Manchster United’s lack of coverage for Shaw, putting the Guinean in positions where he can hurt United or create space for his teammates by attracting the Manchester United players.
Eventually, the game was over at half time. And after a fifth and a red card, Liverpool were in cruise control. The hunt was over, and just like the audience predicted, it was the highly talented collective that saw it out.
At the highest level of football, where individual qualities meet, it’s the collective that makes the difference.
