For Manchester United, Sunday will be going back to where it all started to go wrong. Or, at least, where this latest phase started to go wrong. Erik ten Hag’s players were shaken when they returned to the Anfield dressing room after last season’s 7-0 defeat to Liverpool.
There is now a feeling that that result might have had more of an effect than people realised at the time. It was almost worse that it came so soon after the supposed launchpad moment of that Carabao Cup victory against Newcastle. The extent of the humiliation eroded a lot of the confidence and conviction that had been built during the cup run.
That, of course, doesn’t mean the players lost faith in Ten Hag or anything of the sort, but the sense of progress had been severely stunted. It is conspicuous that United have barely had a convincing performance since, although there are obvious many other reasons for that. The United squad was stretched even in the build-up to that final. It all caved in against exactly the wrong opposition.
Either way, that Carabao Cup has not proven the return to glory that even Ten Hag understandably held it up as at the time. Perhaps that was part of the issue. As one figure with knowledge of the club said then, you don’t use such victories to think you’re back, you use them to keep going. Liverpool would be able to tell United all about that. They are more than familiar with false dawns.
Although it doesn’t map completely cleanly, there are obviously comparisons to be drawn between Liverpool’s years in the title wilderness and United’s now. The Old Trafford club are around where their great rivals were in 2000-01.
Liverpool actually had an exceptional season, with some similarities to United’s last term. Gerard Houllier’s canny team played on multiple fronts and got back into the Champions League. They just went even further than United, not losing a single knockout game that season. The cup treble was an important moment for the club in a period where they needed the esteem.
It just didn’t get them any closer to a title. When it looked like Liverpool might have finally built up that, in 2002-03, they fell away after a few ill-fitting signings in the summer before that campaign. A highly respectable figure like Houllier never quite recovered at Liverpool, and that in a more open Premier League.
Manchester United’s defeat against Bayern Munich this week saw Ten Hag’s team knocked out of the Champions League— (Getty)
This isn’t to say Ten Hag is at that stage but it’s more about how much still needs to change. Rafael Benitez won a Champions League and came very close to one title, but Liverpool probably still needed the ownership change and that clean slate to fully let go of the past. They modernised.
United haven’t yet done that. There are not just remnants of so many squads since Sir Alex Ferguson, but they are also suffering this institutional hangover. They’re now caught in the cycle of the post-Ferguson era. It’s been that long. The same responses and patterns keep playing out.
It is why the INEOS stake is so badly needed. It would just change something. There is no guarantee that Sir Jim Ratcliffe will modernise the club but Jean-Claude Blanc is at least seen as one of the most adept sporting executives in Europe. INEOS plan an audit of how the football side of the club works, before bringing in an approach comparable to one of the most successful clubs.
It will mean Ten Hag has less power, if he gets that far. That is where there is almost a strange irony about the Dutch coach’s time at Old Trafford, though.
He was brought into United because he worked superbly as head coach at Ajax, where he didn’t have much say over recruitment but was free to just apply a football ideology. At Old Trafford, we’ve seen very little of that football ideology – especially this season – but he’s had a huge say in recruitment.
Not even Jurgen Klopp has that. The Liverpool way has been much closer to the previous Ajax way, as well as the Manchester City way. When Klopp needs a player, he informs his recruitment staff of the profile he requires, and they go through the analytics and research to offer a list of potential options.
Mohamed Salah has been a Liverpool staple for seven seasons— (PA)
It has led to what is commonly being called Liverpool 2.0. That touches on another significant point about that 7-0.
The game when United were seen to be on the up but there was still considerable doubt about Klopp’s side. They’d just been through a spell almost as miserable as United’s, with some bad defeats.
Perspectives can change with developments but it now looks like Klopp was already reconstructing the team. They just lacked the engine in midfield, which was what they specifically concentrated on in the summer. They have now already overtaken where United were even last season, and look closer to a title.
That perception speaks to Klopp’s quality, as well as the knowledge that he has already done it at Liverpool.
It also shows how quickly things can change – if you make the right decisions.
Ten Hag now has a big decision on how he sets up for this game. There is a danger Liverpool could rip through United again by some margin, if not to the scale of the 7-0. Klopp’s team have been vulnerable at the back and look like they are still coming together in terms of a system, but they can be glorious in attack. They have the capacity to really get at United.
This isn’t to completely write Ten Hag’s side off, but the trend of the season has been going one way. The only team from the top half they have beaten this campaign is Fulham. It’s one of the days where, in great contrast to March, they need absolutely everything to go right.
Liverpool vs Manchester United kicks off on Sunday 4:30pm on Sky Sports
