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MOTD: Liverpool 0-1 Manchester United

By on January 17, 2016

Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United have shown a knack for rising to the occasion, or scraping by at least, just when the odds seem to tilt against them.  Following a 3-3 draw with Newcastle United over the week, the chips were down as United visited Anfield and though the victory was neither pretty nor fully convincing, Wayne Rooney’s second-half strike gave United an important win over Liverpool. It was the fourth consecutive victory over the Reds for Van Gaal, keeping United from falling out of the top five at a critical point in their season, and providing Van Gaal security in his job for a few weeks more.  Perhaps the old “Fergie Time” spirit hasn’t really left United yet, in a broad sense.

The Dutch manager has certainly seemed to be in the Fergie Time of his tenure at Old Trafford, having won just one of United’s previous eight Premier League matches.  In December, it was a draw against Chelsea and win over Swansea City that kept Van Gaal in a job and here was more evidence for the argument that he should at least be kept on until the end of the season.

Yet the jury is out on whether United finally begin to regain momentum and fulfill their promise from early in the season.  For seventy-eight gloomy minutes, Van Gaal couldn’t have appeared further from finding a long-term solution to reverse the Red Devils’ recent woes, but Rooney’s goal offered a glimpse of hope.  The Englishman has scored five goals in his last four games, proving beyond doubt that he has hit a vein of form at a very welcome time for United.  Marouane Fellaini, who had hitherto been ineffective, headed a near-post corner onto the crossbar and the ball fell for Rooney at the far post to smash past Simon Mignolet with an powerful side-volley.  Liverpool’s redoubled efforts to push forward and find an equalizer were for naught and Jurgen Klopp insisted they “lost a game they should not have lost.”

The German manager is referring to the hosts’ plethora of missed chances: nineteen shots in all and many more that didn’t end with an effort at goal.  Bar a few brilliant saves from David de Gea, they couldn’t come close enough to find the back of the net and Roberto Firmino couldn’t replicate his game-changing performance against Arsenal last Wednesday.

Matteo Darmian’s borderline catastrophic performance gave Liverpool ample freedom down the right wing, but they couldn’t make their visitors pay.  Nine minutes in, Joe Allen lofted a lovely ball over the top for Adam Lallana, but De Gea was at hand to block an looping header from the edge of the area and Firmino dragged the rebound wide of goal.  Jordan Henderson fired wide of the target after exposing Darmian’s flank on the half hour mark and soon afterward, Anthony Martial was forced to track back and make a neat tackle in his own box to cover for Darmian.

On the other side of the half, De Gea blocked Emre Can’s low effort from the edge of the box with his thigh and Henderson sent a whizzing effort straight into the Spanish international’s hands, but United finally begin to show some of their own attacking intent.  Martial danced down the left with quick feet inside a crowded box on fifty-five minutes, only to pull a low effort from a tight angle wide of the far post.

The biggest chance yet came on sixty-six minutes, with Can driving a low effort towards the top corner of the net from twenty-five yards.  De Gea got across his goal to tip it wide and clawed away Firmino’s effort from the rebound.

The stage was set for Rooney to steal the show with a snatch-and-grab style winner, although the fact that the single goal decided the game says equally as much about Liverpool’s sorry finishing as United’s reinvigorated spirit.

Homepage photo credit: John Jones, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.