Manchester United 1 Liverpool 1 – Battling draw but Liverpool still come away feeling opportunity lost

Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)

Prematch Thoughts: We have no Matip – due to us being unclear on his international clearance, no Clyne – due to rib/abdominal injury and no start for Coutinho as we bring him back into the team gradually rather than straight back. This means a first ever full league game for Alexander-Arnold in place of Clyne and Klavan to maintain his spot in the side ahead of Matip.

The game starts off quite even until Zlatan Ibrahimovic pounces on a bad backpass from Lovren, manages to get enough toe on it to chip it over Mignolet but it hits the roof of the net.

And immediately after that Pogba is played through but his shot is just wide of the post.

We got away with that one there! Their over –hyped player let himself down there!

Our first real threat comes from a goalmouth scramble where no one was quite in position to take advantage. That definitely bodes well for the future!

PENALTY TO LIVERPOOL! Pogba goes up to head a ball away and hits it with his hand! Volleyball style! Referee Oliver has no hesistation and points to the spot.

Milner Scores! 1-0 to us! Excellently placed penalty went thundering past United keeper De Gea’s left hand with the keeper guessing the right way !!!

Liverpool conceding two free kicks and a corner in less than two minutes.We are just not playing well to control this lead.

Zlatan hits the free kick low and through traffic and almost forces it in. Mignolet did really well to save it but save it he did – low to his right.

Mkhitaryan played through this time but Mignolet saves it again. Having an excellent first half.

Halftime Thoughts: Messy throughout the first half with United creating the clearer chances and with us not being able to hold the ball up front – Origi being the main culprit in this. The penalty was exactly the boost we needed. I suspect Mourinho will do over the break to try and get his team angry and ready to fight back, because he hates losing to us. Hold on to your hats.

First thing Mourinho does is call on his captain Wayne Rooney to start the second half taking off Carrick which is a surprise to me.

Mkhitaryan is played through again this time by Zlatan and beats Mignolet with a shot but it flashes across goal. Again lucky, there. Our defence parted like the Red Sea for that chance and should really have been punished.

With Origi continuing to struggle Klopp finally sees this and makes a change bringing on our best player Coutinho.

Coutinho’s first bit of action is to play a blind pass through to Firmino who should have slid the ball wide to De Gea’s left but instead hit it straight at the keeper – What a great chance missed should be 0-2 to us! Massive moment in this game and maybe our season.

20-ish minutes left and, in a fit of pique and desperation, Mourinho is turning to his last best chance to turn things around: Marouane Fellaini. You know that means nothing but long balls coming our way !!! Question is can we handle it?

Pogba gifted another opportunity but he sends it into the stands. Which sums up his whole game.

We’ve been better in possession with Coutinho on but also been lucky with the chances missed by United.

Rooney gets the ball to drop at his feet and hits the half-volley but Mignolet parries very well. Mignolet didn’t know about the offside flag going up so that is another very good save.

There it is - 1-1. A goalmouth scramble, a near-miss, and then Zlatan finally forces it in with a looping header.

The build-up play was offside but if the linesman is not in the right position what do you expect!!! That is now 6 offside goals in the last 7 games for United.

Four more minutes injury time to be played.

Wijnaldum with an incredible opportunity but no force behind the shot and De Gea cleans up. Neither side is content with a draw, even with literally seconds left.

Final Whistle Thoughts: So, way better than I was expecting at prematch, but we really should’ve won this game. The defending was fine until the bush haired Fellaini came on to cause aerial havoc in our defence, we just couldn’t get the attack going to finish this game. Still, a point is fine, all things considered, and we’ve got this in awkward away fixture in the rear-view window now.

I felt tactically we were doing fine until Fellaini came on to disrupt our defence, we should have brought on Sturridge at that moment for Wijnaldum or Can and told him to go out there and win this game for us.

Liverpool - Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Klavan, Milner, Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Firmino, Origi.

Subs - Karius, Gomez, Moreno, Stewart, Ejaria, Coutinho, Sturridge

Man of the Match – Mignolet – Excellent performance throughout, showed why he is now our deserved number one with some vital saves in both halves.

Special mentions - Arnold – struggled initially in the first half – Martial causing him so much problems with his pace and skill but maintained his composure and can be pleased with his first full league game overall.

Our midfield got the better of the United midfield throughout so will be disappointed not to ultimately win the game.

We now have 10 home league games left and just 7 away league games left so we are very much in this title race and now need to go on a proper run of 5 or 6 league wins in a row to put some real pressure on Chelsea. Let’s now do it instead of talking about it !!!