Manchester United’s aggregate score over two Premier League games against Liverpool last season was 0-9. This season it’s 2-8. United have improved, then. But after this remarkable afternoon at Anfield, it seems Erik ten Hag’s team have more work to do than we thought.
This was a result and a performance taken right from Ten Hag’s difficult early days at Old Trafford. A 4-0 defeat Brentford and a 6-3 defeat at Manchester City that flattered them were staging posts in Ten Hag’s opening attempts to drag his club out of the darkness and back in to the light.