For all the boisterous energy Manchester United's frenzied fans brought to Old Trafford, there was something of a footballing limitation for Liverpool, that odd period when injuries and an empty stadium managed to rob the then-title holders of their driving force.
So it was Monday. Liverpool found themselves in a hard-fought, hard-fought race and for once were a little off the pace. You don't need fake sprint stats to illustrate this. Just by watching the game it was obvious that Manchester United had an intensity and speed to their play that their great rivals, a team that had been the whirling dervishes of the Premier League for so long, could not match.
As a one-off, this may not be a cause for great concern. United needed to show a response to their disastrous displays against Brighton and Brentford; Klopp himself admitted before the game that he would rather face a tall opponent than a wounded animal. While this defeat sits alongside draws with Fulham and Crystal Palace that have Liverpool in 16th place, the benefit of the doubt goes to a team that has been at or near the top of European football for almost half a decade.
Still, there were signs of something more worrying than just a wobbly run of two points from nine. Virgil van Dijk and James Milner appeared to be engaged in a running war of words stemming from their clumsy attempts to deny Jadon Sancho the opener. Klopp did his best to play down the frustration of his two most senior players, saying: "It's like that when you're on a ground like this." But that hasn't been the case for Liverpool in recent years, and not just because they've enjoyed such success on this ground.
One sight was all the more familiar, Trent Alexander-Arnold's defensive failure. Not for a second should Klopp consider dropping the right-back. The sacrifices that need to be made without the ball should be made in an instant to unleash the 23-year-old's attacking burst. Likewise, it's fair to wonder whether, after years of questioning his tendency to shut down, there could have been further defensive improvements.
Alexander-Arnold has bulked up physically to the point where one-on-ones are not a weakness, but he lacked concentration from the start at Old Trafford and United exploited that mercilessly. A clumsy foul on Marcus Rashford was all Anthony Elanga needed.
The answer is usually that he's on the pitch helping Liverpool score more goals and it's up to those around him to cover him. And yet, right now, Alexander-Arnold could find himself in the same situation he was in at the start of 2021. As with the centre-backs back then, the injury list borders on a brutal center of midfield, an area they could need anyway strengthen, although Thiago, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones were not among the 10 players in the infirmary three games into the season.
Personnel issues – this time coupled with Jordan Henderson's slump in form – have left the right-back with an ever-changing cast of teammates around him. Joe Gomez was no better equipped to cover him this week than Nathaniel Phillips was last week.
United, meanwhile, were ruthless as ten Hags introduced Anthony Martial on the break to slot Marcus Rashford into the channel between Alexander-Arnold and Gomez. It paid dividends in emphatic fashion in 53 minutes. Of course, the latter could do little when Henderson's mishandling presented United with a counter-attacking chance which they took with gusto. It was just the culmination of an hour exploring this particular corridor of Liverpool uncertainty.
But if Alexander-Arnold's life was made difficult by those around him, he didn't always do himself any favors, giving up the chase in United's opening tournament once Elanga found him flat-footed with Christian Eriksen. Virgil van Dijk's inexplicable hesitation when Sancho got into a shooting position caught the eye, but Alexander-Arnold was too slow to get back into position across the pitch to help.
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