Liverpool were able to grab a point at Man Utd yesterday amid controversy around VAR decisions and the referee, but that doesn’t hide the fact the Reds were poor.
All the talk after Liverpool drew with Manchester United yesterday was about VAR and the referee. But we should also talk about what the Reds got wrong at Old Trafford
Two key decisions in the game were decided by VAR and they both went against Liverpool. Man Utd probably should have had their goal from Marcus Rashford ruled out for a foul on Divock Origi earlier in the move.
Then Sadio Mane was given a harsh handball decision to rule out the goal he scored that would have made his side level at half-time. That was on top of a host of poor decisions from the referee favoring the home side.
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All that controversy has left most Liverpool fans feeling like we were hard done by and we would have won with fair officiating.
I don’t disagree. But even if the Reds had taken three points from the game the truth would still remain that they were poor, especially in the first half and should have done more to dominate a weak Man Utd side who were there for the taking.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer employed five at the back which nullified the threat from Liverpool’s full backs, giving the attack little support. The forward line was missing Mohamed Salah and received virtually no help in the first 70 minute of the game from the rest of the team apart from one or two forays forward from Gini Wijnaldum.
They were never under serious pressure from United but played as if they were equally matched. LFC will need more calmness and confidence in future away games if they are to maintain their lead over Man City in the Premier League.
One of the most frustrating things for me was that the game was reminiscent of the consecutive draws at Old Trafford and Goodison Park from earlier in the year. Those ended up costing us the title last season.
Jurgen Klopp needs to look past the VAR controversies and learn the lessons from his own mistakes with 29 more games left in the Premier League. I hope that yesterday’s result is not one we are regretting in May.