Analysis: What are Manchester United’s biggest issues on the pitch?

The Basics

United have been a victim of themselves this season – with slow starts – failure to capitalise on opportunities and many, many basic defensive errors. The Liverpool game was just a culmination of all of it. Every mistake, every bad thing about this side rocked up and showed out on Sunday.

Now, Liverpool were a level above in the game, and as clinical as they have been all year; the basics may not have saved United, but they’d of most definitely helped them do better.

Liverpool came in with a game plan, and it worked perfectly. Every time they attacked, United were on the back foot, tactically unaware and frankly all over the place. Harry Maguire looked as bad as he has ever done, completely flat-footed with almost no command over the back four at all.

This left him out of position the majority of the time, leaving Victor Lindelof in two minds over who to cover. In turn, this dragged Luke Shaw, who had a torrid time, to have to drift in, leaving mountains of space for Mohammed Salah, which you just cannot do.

This isn’t the only basic mistake United made: they were constantly caught in possession, whether that be at the back, or in midfield – they changed nothing. It’s no secret that Liverpool press you high, and yet United did the same thing time after time, and they were punished mercilessly.

Granted a lot of the players had a horrible day, but the lack of direction and the simple tactical mistakes made was abysmal.