Are you watching, Ruben Amorim?! Winners and losers as Michael Carrick and Man Utd earn ultimate reward for believing in Kobbie Mainoo - but Arne Slot and Liverpool's issues remain unfixed

In a fixture where local pride plays such a factor, just two players out of the 22 starters could claim to be from Manchester or Liverpool. And if a certain Portuguese manager were still in charge, there might have been zero local representatives in the United side. Mainoo did not just make up the numbers, he played with the passion and pride that this fixture demands and when the game was there for the taking, he produced a moment of real quality to grab the victory.

The midfielder was the crucial link between defence and attack in the first half and although he sat off a bit in the second when Liverpool grew back into the game, he turned the screw in the late stages with some thrilling attacking play. So many players in his position would have shanked the ball into the stands but he instead had the presence of mind to imagine he was spraying a pass to a team-mate, side-footing into the bottom corner of the net.

Mainoo could have crowned the victory with a second goal in added time but selflessly played in Diogo Dalot, who duly missed the target. It mattered not. Mainoo had shown exactly why it was so crucial that United kept him at the club and convinced him to sign a new deal that means he will spend the next five years, at least, calling the shots in the middle of the pitch.

Andy Robertson has given Liverpool fans so much joy in this fixture, from the 5-0 thrashing here at Old Trafford in 2021 to the 7-0 drubbing in 2023, which he played a major part in. But his sloppy and slow display here underlined why he is leaving Liverpool when his contract expires this summer and this was a sad way for him to bid farewell to one of the club's biggest rivalries.

Robertson was torn to shreds by Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes down his side while even Dalot had his number in a dismal first half. It said a lot that just a couple of minutes after Liverpool had levelled, Slot took him off for Milos Kerkez, signalling that the Scot was in danger of undoing all the progress they had made.

He was far from the only big-name Liverpool player to fall short though; Jeremie Frimpong bombed in his attacking role, Alexis Mac Allister gave the ball away to Mainoo and Florian Wirtz offered next to nothing beyond his wayward first-half effort.

The interim boss, as usual, refused to take the bait when asked if he deserved to be given the job permanently but his record speaks for itself. He has won 10 out of 14 matches since replacing Amorim and if the season had started when he took charge, his team would be top of the league. And he has beaten all five of United's fellow 'Big Six' rivals, with his side rising to the occasion of a high-stakes match every single time.

The second-half performance was another warning that Carrick still has a lot to learn and he is still not an eye-catching appointment like Luis Enrique or Carlo Ancelotti. But he has achieved the number one target of securing Champions League football and the team are on track for a top-three finish, an achievement most fans would have jumped at after finishing 15th last season.

Above all, Carrick proven that he knows the club inside out and he knows how to get the best out of his players. Even though he wouldn't admit it, he deserves the chance to show he can take the club even further.

Liverpool might still be on track to qualify for the Champions League along with United but the result was yet another sign that the club should make a managerial change in the summer. While Carrick has won all the big games, Slot has lost practically all of them. Under his watch United did the double on Liverpool for the first time in a decade, while his side were beaten three times by Manchester City, with a combined scoreline of 9-1. The Cityzens also pulled off the double over Liverpool for the first time in 23 years.

Arsenal and Tottenham are the only 'Big Six' sides Liverpool have beaten this season, with their win over the Gunners dating back to August. True to form, Slot did not stray from the script he has followed all season and partly blamed the defeat on the officiating, highlighting the decision to award Sesko's goal and even bringing up a call from the defeat by United at Anfield in October.

But with club legend Xabi Alonso looking for a new job this summer and candidates like Andoni Iraola also available, Liverpool's decision-makers are going to have to weigh up whether they still want a manager with such a poor recent record in the games that matter the most.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has finally got what he wanted: for the club he owns to be in the biggest club competition of all. In many of his interviews since purchasing his £1.4 billion stake in the Red Devils, Ratcliffe has talked up the importance of being in the Champions League as it is the greatest driver of revenue and for the prestige that comes with it.

United have not taken part in the Champions League since December 2023, the same month Ratcliffe clinched his deal with the Glazers to secure the running of the club's football operation. He has never heard the competition's anthem reverberate around Old Trafford from the comfort of the executive box.

Of course, the fact that United are back in the Champions League is in spite of, rather than because of, his leadership. He has botched two managerial appointments, first deciding to stick with Erik ten Hag only to sack him four months later, and then hiring Amorim despite the difficulties his formation presented and his lack of Premier League experience. But billionaires often end up winning in the end and United's co-owner has finally got on the road towards his stated aim, to borrow Sir Alex Ferguson's legendary phrase, of knocking Liverpool and Man City "off their perch".

In his many memorable press conferences, Amorim kept on stating two beliefs: that Man Utd were not good enough to compete in the Champions League and that Mainoo was not good enough to play for Man Utd. And here both of his theories were emphatically debunked.

Ironically, it turns out that Amorim might have achieved the first objective of finishing in the top five simply be reassessing his opinion of the homegrown midfielder. The Portuguese coach refused to start Mainoo in any Premier League game this season before he was fired in January, and if he had remained in charge the likelihood is that the 21-year-old would be speaking to rival clubs instead of penning a bumper new contract.

Amorim refused to tweak his formation in order to accommodate Mainoo and instead he went down with his ideas. But United have moved on from his disastrous and chaotic reign and have gone on to much, much better things.

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