Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Manchester United 0 Liverpool 3 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
IT’S alright to just admit that we’re the fantasy.
Tell you what. Three games, three wins, none conceded.
There is something to be said about the quality of the opponents across the three games. Ipswich were willing, had a plan, but ultimately not good enough players.
Brentford were well organised and experienced but couldn’t land a glove. And now Manchester United, a football club sick to its core and players barely fit to share a pitch with Liverpool.
The first and most significant thing to take from the game is that they are simply none of our business. They aren’t Manchester City’s business. Not Arsenal’s. And they may not be Newcastle or Brighton’s either if they stay on this trajectory. They are a shambles.
But they were last season and we didn’t hold our nerve. There was more nerve that needed to be held last season. The thing I most liked about this game was when it fell. It fell without context other than one side is better than the other. It has better players, a better outlook and a better coach. It has an idea that everyone is right behind.
And that is damming. Liverpool have had more of a reset than Manchester United. Liverpool have in three games shown monumentally more development than these characters, these chancers, these charlatans have managed in years.
Remember what their high-profile cheerleaders and ex-players have said for years about them. Then look at what they say about us. Obsessing, just confess it, because it’s obvious. And then always, always, always remember this:
Take absolutely no notice of Mancunians speaking in bad faith where Liverpool is concerned.
Let’s all agree never to do it again.
Good faith. The best faith. Total faith. The manager couldn’t have earned any more to this point. His way of doing things has been absolutely spot on and he more than anyone will know in the big picture today doesn’t mean a great deal, other than our unbridled joy.
That joy, though, isn’t just about winning or even outclassing, it is about feeling reinvigorated by what we see.
Mo Salah is a picture of reinvigoration, is the absolute essence of it. He is taking such joy in his work and with it being a brilliant all-round player. A joy to watch and a joy to play with.
He lights the fuse after the game about his contract. He has been the best player this league has seen for the last seven years. He is making one hell of a point it could prove to be 10. He should have his eye on Roger Hunt’s goal total.
Ryan Gravenberch isn’t so much reinvigorated as ignited. The nature of our opponents still begs the question about how he will be in that position against a good side, but he can only dominate what is put in front of him.
The point has long been that first and foremost in the modern game that position needs a footballer, a midfielder. When you expect to be dominant you need someone who can play and play and play.
Gravenberch is that someone. First to everything and then silk with it. He is at the centre of the first-half goals.
Diogo Jota is a splendid number nine. He manages that today without a lot of final third touches, but his movement asks constant questions.
And then, in the ultimate, it was Luis Diaz who had the answers that mattered. Mattered for the game and mattered for him.
Mo Salah aside, the last Liverpool player to get a brace at Old Trafford was Roberto Firmino. The last before that? Steven Gerrard. The last before that? Fernando Torres.
That’s legendary company and while they may be a shambles, Old Trafford itself is still worthy of respect. While they may be the most pensive crowd in the country (Goodison well beyond pensive now), 75,000 Mancunians are still worthy of respect.
Do it there and you can do it anywhere.
Virgil van Dijk and Ibou Konate can do it anywhere. They are my favourite pair since Gomez in 2019 was saddled up next to the captain. Brilliant with and without the ball. Manchester United did occasionally pierce their armour, but Alisson Becker was there.
The running Dominik Szoboszlai got through was exceptional and his decision making terrific with the exception being not even getting his shot away when eight yards out between the sticks. This Liverpool side wants to create terrific chances, but that gilded the lily.
Loved Trent’s celebration when I saw it post match. In normal time it was bedlam in our end. You don’t get many “and he’s given it!” these days. But then deferred, then bedlam again for Diaz times two. It was an end eager to tell them — there’s us. Then there is you. We’re the fantasy.
And we could be living that life. I promise, I’m not getting carried away. Bigger challenges are to come, not least managing across a three-game week with Milan away slap bang in the middle of it. Bigger challenges than these. Proper football teams.
But I Ioved that. Loved sharing it. Love heading home with the points in the boot about to have a pint in Pogues on Seel Street and see all the smiling faces.
I’m not getting carried away but, tell you what, it’d be impossible to be more on the march after three.
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We could do without the soap opera contracts situation. Salah, VVD and TTA are 3 world class players performing superbly. FSG needs to get this sorted immediately, it looks so amateurish. It is a reflection on them as players that they are able to play so well despite the best efforts of FSG to unsettle them. Appalling by FSG.