How Amorim outwitted Slot to earn statement win at Anfield

Football writer Alex Keble analyses Manchester United's 2-1 win at Liverpool on Sunday.

It’s taken all of 11 months, but finally the Ruben Amorim era has its breakthrough moment.

Man Utd have beaten Liverpool at Anfield for the first time in the Premier League since 2016. The significance of this upset cannot be overstated.

Harry Maguire’s header from a brilliant Bruno Fernandes volleyed cross, which seemed to hang in the air for an age, stunned the Liverpool crowd into silence minutes after a Cody Gakpo equaliser appeared to give the home side the momentum.

It was a massive moment for Maguire, who missed a huge chance to win this fixture in stoppage time back in January, but his personal comeback story is of course trumped by Amorim’s.

Finally, the Man Utd head coach has won back-to-back Premier League matches.

Almost unbelievably, it leaves his side just two points behind Liverpool, who have now lost four matches in a row in all competitions for the first time since November 2014 and look to be struggling badly with their transitional season.

Anfield win could be transformative for Man Utd

Man Utd have slowly but surely been playing better football this season, their underlying numbers – notably Expected Goals (xG) for and Expected Goals Against (xGA) – have been steadily growing, leading some pundits to wonder if an upturn in results was just around the corner.

The chances of that happening are significantly increased after today’s game, not because Man Utd did anything particularly different with the ball, but because the psychological impact could transform the mood around the club.

Fernandes and Casemiro showed they can cope against an elite midfield, especially with the help of Mason Mount, whose selection ahead of Benjamin Sesko (to allow Man Utd to play on the ground and avoid an aerial challenge with Virgil van Dijk, as Amorim said before the match) was entirely justified.

The back five, too, showed they can withstand heavy pressure from a Premier League-winning attack.

Most of all, Man Utd proved – at long, long last – that they can win two games in a row.

Just three points behind second-placed Manchester City, all of a sudden, Man Utd look nothing like a club in crisis.

Even the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion next Saturday, who have won their last three visits to Old Trafford, feels a less daunting task now.

Man Utd show more structure than Liverpool

Throughout the match, Liverpool lacked control, lacked a clear structure to how they were playing, both before and after a triple substitution on the hour mark that turned a fractured game into a wild end-to-end one.

Alexis Mac Allister was a little lost as a No 8 alongside Dominik Szoboszlai (taking just 21 touches of the ball in an hour on the field), which appeared to leave Ryan Gravenberch – alone at the base – unable to pick apart Man Utd’s low block.

As a result Liverpool were laboured, especially after the energy-sapping Bryan Mbeumo opener after just 60 seconds.

Man Utd had raced out the blocks but Liverpool simply couldn’t get going, not until Arne Slot threw the kitchen sink at the game with half an hour left to play, moving to a 4-2-4 formation that left Florian Wirtz and Curtis Jones as a two-man midfield.

Cody Gakpo’s equaliser was the direct result of the waves of Liverpool attacking players, who simply outnumbered Man Utd and pushed them into fearful retreat.

As the below image shows, within minutes of the triple substitution, Liverpool were pouring numbers forward.

That ultimately proved to be a problem. On another day, Gakpo – who hit the woodwork three times and missed a sitter from six yards out – might have made the tactical change work, but Liverpool almost seemed to fall over each other to find space.

With a misfiring Mohamed Salah occupying the same areas as Federico Chiesa and Gakpo being crowded in the same space as Hugo Ekitike, there was no more control, structure, or order in Liverpool’s play.

Maguire’s winner was a sucker-punch, and a direct result of Slot making such a gung-ho attacking move so early in the match. The visitors were always going to create chances against such an open team.

Liverpool were deservedly punished for gambling too much and too early.

"We created many opportunities to score and win the game, but the reality is that we lost," Van Dijk said.

"It’s still a long season. It’s easy to get dragged into a negative spiral. But it’s down to us to keep working, stay humble, and improve – ASAP."

Liverpool's losing streak is a huge moment for Arsenal and City

The inability to find any fluency in this match is a serious issue for Slot and Liverpool, because here was yet another example of the team stumbling as they try to integrate a host of new signings.

Alexander Isak had virtually no impact. Salah was again off it, looking sheepish without his old partner in crime Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Salah has now gone seven consecutive Premier League appearances without scoring a non-penalty goal for the very first time. Meanwhile, Wirtz and Ekitike did little to affect things from the bench.

This is all good news for Arsenal and Man City. Both clubs look calm and controlled this season in all the ways Liverpool are not.

Man City travel to Anfield in a fortnight’s time and will be feeling confident they can make things even worse for Slot, while Arsenal’s run against non-Big Six clubs continues for a little while yet.

The signs for Liverpool are not good. For Man Utd, everything suddenly looks rosy.

"The old cliche is it's only three points,” match-winner Maguire told Sky Sports after the game.

"But it’s definitely not. It means a lot more than that to the boys, to the club, to the fans."

After missing that sitter in January, Maguire understands just how big a moment his winner was, not just for the future of the Amorim project but for the here and now.

"Football's all about memories, it’s all about creating special memories, and I’m sure all the fans in the stadium will have a memory they won’t forget," he said.

"But we won’t get carried away. We need to use this game as motivation."

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