Super-sub Adam Lallana rescued a point for Liverpool at Old Trafford after Marcus Rashford’s goal appeared to have won it for Manchester United amid VAR controversy. We look at the three things we learned from United’s draw against Liverpool.
Manchester United are very good at playing as a ‘small team’
Manchester United have struggled to break teams who have defended deep this season as seen in results like the Crystal Palace and Newcastle defeats and the draw against 10 men Southampton.
United’s best performance came on the opening weekend when they beat Chelsea 4-0 at Old Trafford.
Chelsea was arguably the better team but United sat deep and counter-attacked with the pace of Rashford and Martial upfront.
Here against Liverpool United again sat deep with 3-5-2 formation and looked to counter with Rashford and Daniel James.
This result will ease some of the pressure on Solskjaer but he will face a different kind of test next Sunday when they face Norwich at Carrow road.
Rashford can play as a number 9
Much of the pre-match talk was about Marcus Rashford’s poor form and whether he needed to be taken out of the side. Solskjaer came out and insisted that Rashford cannot be taken out of the side at the moment.
Rashford has divided opinion with many experts believing that he lacks the hunger for goals to be a top striker.
The 21-year-old showed another element to his game against Liverpool and did not try to do much for United.
The England international scored a striker’s goal for United when Daniel James raced down the right and crossed low for Marcus Rashford to score. Early on he bullied Virgil van Dijk by the touchline – not many do that – and played the ball inside for Andreas Pereira to shoot over from 18 yards.
Soon after that, Rashford was busy over on the far side, bustling to the byline to cause danger at Alisson’s near post.
Rashford will have to do plenty more to completely silence his doubters.
United need a new creative midfielder
While United did well to get a result against Liverpool their lack of creativity in midfield was there for all to see. The Red Devils started with a midfield three of Fred Scott McTominay and Andreas Perreira. While Fred and McTominay performed well in frustrating Liverpool they did not provide any kind of spark in the final third. Perreira is a squad player at best and tried his best to create chances for United.
It is no surprise United has struggled to break opposition defenses this season and have relied heavily on Paul Pogba to provide a creative spark upfront.
