Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 3 Manchester United 0 on the 2024-2025 pre-season tour of the USA…
THE final of the three US games saw Liverpool outscore Manchester United by three goals to nil.
I’m loath to nail down “outplay” despite the scoreline. Both of Liverpool’s goalkeepers are pressed into very good service and Manchester United miss the target with some other good chances.
Liverpool, though, are broadly the better side. They play through phases brilliantly and spurn both chances and chances to create chances themselves. They look better set up and more excitingly set up at that.
They also looked the easiest they had to play through in those early stages, perhaps precisely because they were enjoying it a little too much the other way. This is possibly instruction today, though – noticeable that Curtis Jones is stealing into the box first 10 and Wataru Endo is doing likewise around the 77th minute.
In terms of the selection, Endo’s absence with Ryan Gravenberch being selected instead was, due to Dominik Szoboszlai being fatigued, the most noteworthy choice the manager makes.
Gravenberch does well. Again, takes a little bit of time as it has for others, but once we get beyond 15 or so he is often the deepest of Liverpool’s midfielders on the ball and does well while being pressed very aggressively. He does the same job as Jones and Szoboszlai in the previous game – baits the press, builds the play and backs the play up.
It’s such an involved role and Jones takes it to the next level by adding goalscorer for Liverpool’s second. Proper goalscorer too – he’s between the sticks and in the six-yard box when Mo Salah picks him out.
Salah was released by Jarell Quansah with an excellent ball and Quansah was yet again his oasis of calm through first-half tumult.
Fabio Carvalho’s first half will have pleased the manager. He is constantly involved and gets his reward with a lovely shift of his balance for the opening goal. It deflects home but he doesn’t care. It has been a good pre-season for him to date and one which won’t hurt.
His Liverpool career may remain one which came at the wrong time, but whatever happens next for him – whether with Liverpool or not – he’s a player good enough to play for a team with European ambitions. European ambitions are always worth having and our opponents will play European football next season.
Carvalho looks at home in our company and in theirs.
Ibou Konate looks a footballer who hasn’t played very much at all for three months and who has a whole new thing to prepare for. And isn’t playing on his usual side. But he gives it away cheaply twice by the 13th minute. Something to work on.
One full back scores a tap in and the other hits the byline time and again. I’ve no idea what you would do with Conor Bradley if you were facing him. He can go both ways, can play it and carry it and hits bylines with abandon.
Both goalkeepers make good saves as I have said, but goalkeepers get to make saves. It is part of the job. Liverpool look the most porous they have through the preseason. Something to work on.
And that’s the thing. The manager will love the video. Again and again Liverpool just make the wrong choice, but the point is that the right choice is there – we can see it. That suggests a lot is going well and it just needs that bit more. The same will be the case the other way, a second ball missed, a slightly off choice made. This is his job and the work is the point.
These, though, are as much cultural events as they are football matches and the long-term significance is much more about the former as it is the latter. It was another excellent visit all round from Liverpool – strong inclusive events and a good fan park that those who attended will remember. There were 77,000 in the ground for this one which is fantastic.
A thing about American sport is the event itself conjures the meaning. So many games are played every day in this country, but a huge move of people offers clout to affairs that can ultimately be devoid of meaning.
For this tour they came from all over to see Liverpool. The significance isn’t the results, as sound as they are; the buoyancy the performances offer matters yes, but the weight comes from the people themselves. They turn up in such numbers it offers the meaning.
It’s cultural outreach. Liverpool brought the best version of themselves in this specific moment on and off the pitch in 2024.
Not perfect, not yet, but a lot to be pleased with and proud of.
