Liverpool have brought Manchester United crashing down to earth with a stunning 7-0 rout at Anfield in the visitors’ worst competitive defeat in more than 90 years.
Key points:
- It was the biggest loss for Manchester United across all competitions and their first seven-goal defeat since 1931
- United coach Erik ten Hag said it was an “unprofessional” performance
- Six of the seven goals came in the second half
Only a week after winning the League Cup, United experienced its biggest defeat in the Premier League and the club’s joint-worst loss in all competitions.
United has lost 7-0 on three previous occasions — the last time coming in 1931 against Wolverhampton. The score also eclipsed Liverpool’s previous best victory against United, which was a 7-1 win in 1895.
Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah all struck twice and Roberto Firmino scored the other, with six of the goals coming in an explosive second-half performance.
It also delivered a major blow to Erik ten Hag’s four-pronged pursuit of trophies, with a league title challenge now looking increasingly unlikely as they sit in third spot, nine points behind cross-town rivals City and 14 points behind leaders Arsenal.
“It’s unprofessional,” ten Hag said.
“As a team, you have to stick together. And that is what we didn’t do. And that was a surprise for me. I haven’t seen this from my team. I don’t think it’s Manchester United. So it’s really bad and poor.”
Former United captain Roy Keane said it was a “shocking day”.
“The senior players were embarrassing. They didn’t show any leadership skills,” he said.
“A really tough day for Man United and thank goodness I have never been part of losing like that. The players will be ashamed; when the going got tough, they went missing.”
Liverpool, meanwhile, took advantage of losses for top-four rivals Newcastle and Tottenham to strengthen its own bid to qualify for the Champions League by closing the gap to fourth place to just three points with a game in hand.
Salah became the Merseyside club’s all-time leading Premier League scorer with 129 goals.
With Liverpool eyeing the top four, United knew anything other than a win would be a huge blow to its challenge for the title after Arsenal’s late 3-2 victory against Bournemouth.
But history was not on the visitors’ side, having failed to win at Anfield since 2016.
For all of United’s progress under ten Hag, this was the latest test of his team’s nerve on the big occasion, having already seen losses at Manchester City and Arsenal this season.
This humiliating setback came seven days after the Dutch manager won his first trophy at United.
Gakpo put Liverpool ahead in the 43rd minute when collecting Andrew Robertson’s pass, immediately charging into the box, sidestepping Raphael Varane and sweeping a shot past David de Gea and into the bottom corner.
United’s players had been guilty of wasting chances of their own before that goal, with Bruno Fernandes missing the target with a far-post header and Marcus Rashford firing tamely at Alisson with only the goalkeeper to beat.
If United fans expected a response after the break, they were instead left stunned by Liverpool’s explosive start to the second half.
Núñez extended Liverpool’s lead by heading in Harvey Elliott’s cross after Luke Shaw failed to clear the ball.
It was 3-0 in the 50th after Salah’s clever footwork beat Lisandro Martinez and he then clipped a pass for Gakpo to lift over De Gea.
It went from bad to worse for ten Hag as his team still tried to get back into the match.
Liverpool ruthlessly exploited United’s ragged defence, with Salah making it 4-0 in the 66th and Núñez scoring again in the 75th.
It was 6-0 when Salah scored in the 83rd and substitute Firmino stepped off the bench to score in the 88th.
Liverpool’s seven goals came from just eight shots on target.
AP
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