The narrative coming into this match appeared to be set in stone.
The Manchester United had struggled throughout the season and despite encouraging underlying numbers a lack of threat in front of goal had generated a sense of unease around Old Trafford.
Contrast that with the environment at close neighbours Liverpool as they came into this match with an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League table after just eight matches.
Pressure has been building on United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the Norwegian has been searching for the key to unlocking the attacking potential in this squad.
He has been accused of lacking imagination from a tactical point of view but this match will put a stop to those accusations at the very least.
Liverpool have impressed this season, to a point, it is difficult to be overly negative about a side that have an eight-point advantage at this early stage of the season.
With that said, however, there have been matches already this season, against Sheffield United and Southampton in particular where Liverpool have won despite not being at their best.
When any of the first-choice front three are not available from the start there is a definite sense that the Liverpool system does not quite click.
Team News
Solskjaer sprung a surprise right from the start with a switch of system to incorporate a back three. Academy graduate Axel Tuanzebe was unfortunate to pick up a knock before the start of the match and the Argentinian defender Marcos Rojo came in to take his place on the left of the back three.
Victor Lindelof played on the right and Harry Maguire in the centre.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka was back to full fitness to play as the right-sided wing-back with Ashley Young on the left. There was a recall in the midfield for the Brazilian midfielder Fred alongside Scott McTominay.
In recent weeks we had seen Andreas Pereira used in a wide right role but here he played a hybrid position between the midfield and attacking lines.
There was a front two for United in Daniel James and Marcus Rashford but with a twist as both split wide in possession to allow Pereira to occupy a central space.
The biggest piece of team news for Liverpool saw Mohamed Salah ruled out of the matchday squad entirely.
The good news was that the Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson was fit to return to the starting line-up. The back four has been largely unchanged all season with Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right and Andrew Robertson on the left with Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk centrally.
Fabinho played as the No.6 with Giorginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson ahead of him.
Divock Origi played on the left of the attack with Sadio Mane playing on the right in place of Salah. Roberto Firmino played as the central striker.
There are some matches that constitute a constant tactical battle between two coaches, this was one such match.
As mentioned above there had been doubts widely expressed across the football world that Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was perhaps too one dimensional tactically to find the solutions to the issues that were surrounding United this season.
There have also been questions this term surrounding Jurgen Klopp and his willingness to move away from the 4-3-3 that has served him so well.
This match saw a constant battle between the two coaches as they battled to enable their teams to control and occupy the spaces that would allow them to dominate the match. The first blow was well and truly struck by United with their occupation of space by the wide forwards.
Throughout the first half of the match, we saw the two forwards for United look to occupy the highlighted spaces whether United were in or out of possession.
By occupying the half-spaces between the full-backs and central defenders we saw the United forwards forcing the two Liverpool full-backs to worry about their position.
This meant that if the full-backs pushed too high they left space behind that could be easily accessed by the quick forward players in moments of direct transition into the attack.
The key to this positioning lay in preventing the Liverpool central defenders from simply splitting wider to track the forward players.
This was achieved through the forward movement from Pereira who would push high in possession to operate almost as a centre forward.
We see an example of this above with the ball on the right-hand side with Wan-Bissaka. As he progresses forward you see the issues caused to the Liverpool defensive line.
Left-back Robertson is aware of the threat behind him as Rashford makes a run. Pereira has also pressed forward and is immediately isolated 1vs1 against Matip. These runs were constantly stretching the Liverpool defensive lines.
With United 1-0 up going into half time, Liverpool came out in the second half with a different tactical system to counteract the United game plan.
Without changing personnel we saw Klopp change to a 4-2-3-1. This saw Origi go through the middle with Mane switching back over to the left-hand side while Jordan Henderson went out to the right of the attack. Firmino then dropped back to play as a more conventional No.10.
With the positioning of Firmino and his ability to receive the ball in tight pockets of space, we immediately saw Liverpool create a clear qualitative advantage over their opponents.
This means that despite the midfield battle on paper being 3vs3 Liverpool still had the advantage given the quality of Fabinho and Wijnaldum as the double pivot and Roberto Firmino ahead of them.
You can see this shape above with the double pivot and then the three attacking midfielders behind the lone striker. Firmino as the No.10 was still able to move freely from deep areas.
This move had a secondary benefit as Pereira was forced to play deeper to prevent Liverpool from overloading their opponents 3vs2 centrally.
This, in turn, led to Liverpool being able to control the match more effectively going into the second half.
One of the biggest threats that any team playing against Liverpool have to face is the movement of their front three.
Even with Salah unavailable for this match this threat still stood. The mechanisms behind these attacking patterns are relatively simple if difficult to defend against.
Firmino looks to drop off the front line and the two wide forwards immediately move centrally. The width is then created either by the full-backs moving high or in an addition to the structure this season by Henderson moving outside on the right from his central midfield position.
United were set out to negate this threat as much as they possibly could. The three central defenders remained narrow to deal with the threat of the wide forwards as they moved inside.
The wing-backs were able to deal with the threat of the Liverpool fullbacks effectively. This just left the movement of Firmino into deep areas but the two midfielders for United were so compact that they covered this space naturally.
We see above the problems that Liverpool had in breaking down the United defensive structure.
As Origi has possession wide on the left he has few options with which to progress the ball. Mane and Firmino have swapped positions on the far side but the ball cannot be easily played out to that side.
The highlighted areas are the positions that Liverpool will typically look to attack. These areas were taken away by the presence of Harry Maguire in the centre of the three man defensive line.
Liverpool struggled to progress the ball centrally for the majority of the match. Out of possession United collapsed back into a back five with the wing-backs joining the defensive line.
The two central midfielders then played just ahead of the defensive line to deny Liverpool the pockets of space into which they would normally play.
Here we see a typical piece of movement from Liverpool as Mane moves inside and Henderson then makes a run outside. Given the positioning and spacing of the United defensive block, however, these movements were relatively ineffective.
This season has seen Alexander-Arnold graduate to not only a role as a regular first-team player but to being a key player.
Despite playing exclusively from the right-back position the academy graduate is widely regarded as the best passer of the ball in the Liverpool team.
Indeed, despite some occasionally poor performances on the defensive side he more than makes up for those with his playmaking abilities.
In this match, we saw both full-backs for Liverpool struggle initially to come to terms with the runs made by the United forwards into spaces behind them. This prevented either Alexander-Arnold or Robertson from moving forward to support the attack.
In the second half with we started to see both of them take more advanced positions with Alexander-Arnold, in particular, looking to access the penalty area with the deep crosses that are quickly becoming a trademark of sorts.
Here we see the type of cross that Liverpool attempted in order to access the penalty area and to drop the ball behind the United defensive line.
The interplay before the cross is simply and predictable and United are well set with a strong defensive shape between the ball and the penalty area.
As the ball is set back to Alexander-Arnold he looks to hit a deep looping cross to the rear of the penalty area. These crosses were dealt with relatively easily throughout the match.
Here we see again the issues that Liverpool had with progressing the ball into the final third.
Matip has been able to step out of the defensive line and he has carried the ball to the edge of the final third. There are players looking to play in the space between the defensive and midfield lines but those passing lanes are blocked.
Ashley Young is positioned to cover two Liverpool players depending on the pass that is picked. Instead we would see Liverpool constantly look to recycle the ball and switch the play.
In the end, it is difficult to argue that a 1-1 draw in this match is not a fair result. The expected goals for the match tend to reinforce this as they came in at 0.79 to Manchester United and 1.03 to Liverpool. Other than the goal from Rashford, and despite an interesting and flexible tactical approach, we still saw United struggle to create any goal-scoring chances of note.
Liverpool were little better and there were few moments in the match in which you felt the away side were in control of proceedings. They struggled to connect passes in and around the edge of the United penalty area and were forced wide where they would try to cross the ball into a crowded penalty area.
This match does not tell us anything significant that we did not already know.
Liverpool retain their lead at the top, although that has been cut to six points, while United gave hope to a frustrated fan base.
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