More bad news for United…
That’s all from me.
Here’s the match report again. Bye!
There was a snippet of breaking news mid-match , and as far as United were concerned it was good.
Henry Winter (@ henrywinter)
Rashford was carrying a single stress fracture in his back, now has a double stress fracture after Wolves game. Expected to be out for 2-3 months. Also has a piece of floating bone in his ankle requiring non-intrusive surgery to remove. Been playing thru immense pain to help
# mufc January
1. (PM) (EST) :Here’s David Hytner’s match report from Anfield:
For Manchester United fans, it is the hope that kills them. The hope that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can find the answers, that the flickers of promise from his tenure can morph into meaningful momentum, that the romance inherent in his appointment can somehow over-ride the problems and the drift at the top of the club.
This was a game in which Liverpool’s superiority was so pronounced for most of the first half and the early part of the second that it would have been no surprise had they led by five or six. The intensity of their football coupled with the surgical nature of their incisions were enough to take the breath. It certainly seemed to take that of United. During the period, it felt like the latest reality check for Solskjaer and his players. And yet at the end, the very end, after United had loaded men into the Liverpool area for an all-or-nothing corner, there was Mohamed Salah racing onto Alisson’s clearance, holding off Daniel James and finally giving Liverpool
Virgil van Dijk talks to Jamie Carragher, first about his goal:
We tried to find the near post and it worked. Fantastic delivery and the timing was there. It’s never easy, set pieces. For us I’ve always been marked by the strongest defensive header guys. Today it was two opponents. It’s always difficult, but I think if the timing is right it’s a big chance.
And then about the disallowed goal:
I didn’t jump with my hands up. It’s difficult to say. But if the VAR gives it, you have to just accept it. I thought it was no foul, but you have to accept it. That’s the rules these days. But we had many more opportunities to score goals today and make it look easy. We had two, three, maybe four clear-cut chances. You have to find a way, and in the end we did.
And finally, after Carragher tries to make him admit
look title-bound:
I think everyone wants us to say something about it but we won’t. We won’t get carried away. We cannot, and we won’t. I think what we experienced last year is something that made our mentality like this. We just want to go one game at a time, try to stay fit, try to improve.
1). pm EST :
Not a great game, but certainly a gripping one. . Liverpool could have made it easier for themselves, and but for a couple of poor final passes to Mane and a silly Salah miss it would surely have been a straightforward home win. But United eventually fought their way into the game, and after Mata and Greenwood were introduced they were the more dangerous team. Martial had their one real chance, and fluffed it real bad.
Liverpool’s last six
Premier League games at half time:1- 0 vs Watford
1-0 vs Leicester(1-0 vs Wolves) 1-0 vs Sheffield 1-0 vs Spurs(1.) (PM) (EST) :Sky try very hard to force Henderson and / or Salah to admit that they look title-bound, but it’s not happening. Here’s Henderson:
We’re not really thinking about the end. Why should we change now? Why think about the end of the season? There’s still a lot of games left. For us as players it’s the next game, the next challenge, and the Premier League’s tough. United played well at times today, but overall I think we deserved the three points. 1-0’s a dangerous scoreline. I feel as though we should have killed the game off earlier, with the chances that we had, but we kept going, defended well and managed to get a second in the end. This is special. We’re enjoying our football. But you’ve got to stay hungry, you’ve got to keep learning, keep wanting more. We’re going to keep going until the end of the season.
(1.) (pm EST )
4 mins: “We ‘re going to win the league! ”sing the home fans as the final seconds tick away. And it’s all over!
(1.) (PM) (EST)
:
Updated (at 1.) PM EST
(1.) (PM) (EST) : 32
2 mins: United win another corner. De Gea is denied permission to go up for it.
(pm EST :2 mins: every cross seems to dip onto Van Dijk’s forehead. He heads coear again, the ball is kicked high into United’s half, and De Gea runs from his goal to beat Salah to it.
(1.) (pm) EST :
1 mins:
there will be three minutes of stoppage time, or thereabouts. United have the ball back, and continue to press.
(1) (pm) EST
:
mins: Liverpool break. Henderson runs through but can’t quite outpace Dal ot and thus has to rush and indeed fluff his cross.
(1.) pm EST :
mins: United take a short corner to Mata. Lallana pokes the ball away from the Spaniard, who manages to convert the situation into a free kick, which leads to another corner. Pressure.
mins: the home side counter. Alexander-Arnold sets Salah sprinting against Wan-Bissaka, who keeps up well enough. Salah eventually chips a decent cross to the far post, where nobody is there to head in.
mins: Shaw Is suffering from a spot of cramp, forcing United to take him rather than Wan-Bissaka off as Diogo Dalot comes on.
mins: Liverpool’s post-substitional tactical rejig has seen them switch to a 4-5-1, with Salah on his own up front.
(1.) (PM EST ) :
mins: There have been spells in this match where United have been on the verge of being submerged. Had Salah converted that chance early in this half, that might indeed have happened. Instead here they are, still a single goal down and with six minutes to take advantage of an exact jittery Anfield.
Updated (at 1.) PM EST
(1.) (pm EST :
mins: Liverpool use up their last two substitutions, bringing on Fabinho and Divock Origi, and taking off Firmino and Mane.
1. 24 PM EST) :
mins: United win a corner, and it’s curled towards the near post where four of their players compete with one defender. It looked to me like Maguire headed it clear.
mins: United keep the ball around Liverpool’s area for a while, until Mata plays a one-two with Wan-Bissaka and scoops in a lovely-looking but inaccurate cross that bounces through to Alisson.
mins: Martial’s excellent cross is (just) too high for Greenwood. United, though, are starting to sniff an equaliser.
(1.) (pm) EST
:
mins: Alexander-Arnold crosses towards the onrushing Mane, who backheels towards Firmino, but there’s a little bit too power on his touch and by the time the Brazilian has it under control and is facing the goal, there are too many defenders there for him to get a shot on target.
mins: United make a double substitution, bringing Juan Mata and Mason Greenwood on and taking Williams and Pereira off.
(1.) pm EST : 16
mins: Alexander-Arnold takes; United head clear.
mins: Salah spins past Shaw, who has both hands round the Egyptians waist as he attempts to recover. Free kick, and a booking.
Updated at 1. 28 PM EST
)
mins: (For the last) minutes or so we have had a pretty even game, with both sides threatening.
(mins:) Now a better shot from distance, this time from Fred. This time Alisson shovels it behind for a corner.
(mins:) (Martial hits a low
mins: Liverpool take off Oxlade-Chamberlain, who looks extremely grumpy about either this decision or his own performance, and bring on Lallana.
:
mins: Another chance for
(pm EST ) :
mins : How Liverpool’s goal survived the last five minutes I don’t know. Those two chances, for Fred and Martial, have changed the flow of the game a bit, building United’s confidence and weakening Liverpool’s.
mins: Impossible miss! Martial plays a one-two with Pereira, chests the ball down, and lashes the ball goalwards from 27 yards or so, but it flies over the bar!
28 (pm) (EST)
:
mins: A chance for an equaliser! Fred intercepts Alexander-Arnold’s poor long throw on the halfway line and runs without any kind of challenge into Liverpool’s penalty area, where he shoots wide of the near post. “As frustrating as the whole situation was around the first disallowed goal, I take some small crumb of satisfaction from the fact that De Gea picked up an insanely unnecessary yellow card,” writes Matt Dony. “His protests had no effect on the final outcome. He screamed in a man’s face, then the decision went his way anyway. Also, my father played in goal back in the ‘good old days’. He fondly remembers times when, in the face of a couple of 30 stone forwards charging at him, he had no choice but to throw the ball over the crossbar and concede a corner. Keepers today don’t know they’re born. ”
. (pm) EST :
mins: Firmino dan ces inside the penalty area, humiliating a couple of defenders before shooting into Wan-Bissaka’s bum.
(pm) (EST :
mins: Alexander-Arnold’s cross hits Shaw’s hand, but no dice from the officials (it was, to be fair, thundered into him from no distance). Oxlade-Chamberlain’s low shot is easily saved by De Gea.
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