What we learnt from United’s win at Anfield

Manchester United's Harry Maguire celebrates with Diogo Dalot after scoring against Liverpool/HANDOUT

Manchester United had waited nearly a decade to win at Anfield in front of the Kop.

Their 2-1 victory over rivals Liverpool is the crowning achievement of coach Ruben Amorim’s relatively short career at United. At the same time, their courageous display has given Amorim a breath of fresh air after being severely criticised this season.

This is a clear wake-up call for Liverpool, and their huge summer spend is not bearing fruit.

Inside the club, they are worried — the coach, the trainers and the executives.

They started the season well on the back of last year’s success; however, Arne Slot realised the problems before they started happening.

His talisman forward, Mo Salah, is out of form despite some international success and he has been working hard with the assistant trainers to try and sharpen his game.

It might be that he is getting older; he no longer runs back to help out in defence and he is nowhere near as aggressive as he was over the last few seasons.

It is true, as Liverpool fans were quick to realise, that he is missing Trent Alexander-Arnold and with new strikers in the middle Mo no longer enjoys the freedom around the penalty area as he has done in previous seasons.

Virgil van Dijk seems to have lost that commanding presence at the back and goalkeeper Alisson is still out injured, but I am told he could be back after the next international break. Behind Salah, Conor Bradley needs to step up and he could then release Dominik Szoboszlai and give him the freedom to roam in midfield instead of being pinned back in defence.

Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz have yet to prove themselves to the Liverpool faithful and therefore it is up to Salah to get his game together — only then will Liverpool become the force of last year.

Three defeats in a row were a first for Arne Slot in his professional career. Behind the scenes, he is worried because on paper, his team should have done better against United. It is even being whispered that Slot has run his race and should be replaced.

Ruben Amorim indeed brought his team to Anfield privately expecting the worst, and it must be remembered that he had not won back-to-back games across 11 months and 34 matches.

Despite this win and their 2-0 victory against Sunderland before the international break, there are still many questions surrounding Amorim’s tactical plans and strategies. Not everyone at the club is on board with what he is trying to achieve. They want to believe, and the only way the fans and even some of the club hierarchy will be won over is to carry on winning matches — but for Arne Slot, it is back to the drawing board.

Humour from Newcastle fans

Hearing about Liverpool’s discomfort and losing at home to United, fans at Newcastle’s game were singing former striker Alexander Isak’s name and chanting “no refunds!” Isak failed to get on the scoresheet yet again.

Yellow and red cards causing Chelsea problems

Chelsea gave Nottingham Forest owner the chance to sack his coach, Ange Postecoglou, after securing a 3-0 win, and it is difficult to see how or where the Australian coach will ever come back to the Premier League. He is a busted flush.

Having said that, Chelsea have their problems. That win was a welcome boost for Enzo Maresca after a poor away record, with only three wins from 14 games before last Saturday.

But Maresca’s biggest problem is the team’s indiscipline after Malo Gusto’s red card for a second bookable offence. That brings the Blues’ total to five red cards in seven matches, including one for Maresca himself, so it is difficult for him to criticise his players for their lack of control.

At the same time, since the beginning of the 2022–23 season, no team has picked up more yellow cards than Chelsea, who have 301 to their discredit. Last season, they were top of the naughty list with 101 yellows. Maresca said he is “not concerned” and that he likes his players to show their desire, but as I pointed out, you can’t pick your ideal starting line-up if you have players banned and unable to play.

Gyokeres will come good, says Arteta

Mikel Arteta is convinced that Arsenal’s Sporting Lisbon import Victor Gyökeres is worth supporting during his so-far disappointing Premier League career. He showed his potential with two midweek goals in the Champions League, but in Europe’s top tier he is not making an impression.

Arteta points out that because of the quality of opposition in the Premier League, Arsenal did not expect Gyökeres to score at the same goal-per-game rate he achieved in Liga Portugal, but he does add other qualities.

Fans have taken to him because at Arsenal, he moves intelligently behind the defence, which creates space for others to play into. Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino often come short and that’s easy for teams to defend against. When Gyökeres runs the other way, the defence gets deeper and deeper, which opens up space for others to attack.

Arteta points out that although he is not scoring regularly, which will come in time, he has improved Arsenal.

Is it time to bench Salah?

I have written a lot about Mo Salah’s loss of form this season, and against Manchester United, he was one of the worst performers, but still, he stayed on the field almost to the final whistle.

The question thousands of Anfield supporters and commentators are asking is: should Salah be dropped to the bench until he shows in training that he can command and score like he used to do?

For Arne Slot, it is a difficult question, but at the end of the day, he has to protect his own position because Liverpool must be the best, continuously winning results and retaining their title. Salah is not playing his part in any of those club demands.

Liverpool now go to Brentford — should Salah start in that match? Thirty-three-year-olds cannot expect to contribute what they achieved in their prime years, with the exceptions perhaps of Harry Kane, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo.

Is it time to rebuild Liverpool around Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz? After all, they did cost a combined £225 million, although both are taking their time to settle in at Anfield. Jeremie Frimpong replaced Salah with only five minutes to go last weekend but in that time he improved attacking options on the right wing. He defends and attacks, which Salah isn’t achieving at the moment, and he also has pace.

Injuries are often the fault of the coaches

It is a fact that player injuries seem to follow coaches as they move from club to club because of their training programmes and tactics.

Across the Premier League — accepted as the most intense pressure league in Europe — the number of injuries is on the rise. Chelsea have ten players out at the moment, Tottenham seven, and Sunderland and Aston Villa six each.

Arsenal were cruelly limited in player availability last season, which many claim cost them the league title, and they have five of their main players out at the moment, with captain Martin Ødegaard suffering a medial cruciate ligament problem. Liverpool’s summer signing Giovanni Leoni is out with the same injury, and Tottenham’s James Maddison and Chelsea’s Levi Colwill both have similar issues. Cole Palmer is likely to be out of Chelsea’s squad for another six weeks.

Abdukodir Khusanov is Manchester City’s current defensive worry, and he has joined Rayan Cherki and Rayan Aït-Nouri with hamstring problems along with Mateo Kovačić.

Why then is this appalling injury list so bad? Hamstring injuries are thought to be avoidable but are caused by high-pressure sprint runs and competitive games coming thick and fast with the league, Champions League for some, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, etc.

Last season, medical assistants at Tottenham blamed Ange Postecoglou for the multiple soft-tissue injuries, which they say were due to his high-pressure style of play and relentless training practices. This season, under Thomas Frank, who has a less intense approach, the problems are not so serious.

Nuno Espírito Santo’s approach is a counter-attacking strategy with low-intensity training, which teaches players to keep the shape of the team moving forward, so there is not so much high-pressure running. Consequently, Nottingham Forest had the best fitness record in the Premier League. When Postecoglou took over for his short managerial role, the intensity increased alarmingly for some players.

Managers need to learn how to manage their players better, being aware of their physical capabilities, mental approach and overall strength. Until they do, the players will always be at risk.

Wolves going from bad to worse

If Wolverhampton coach Vítor Pereira was in charge of Nottingham Forest at the start of the season, he would be out of a job by now. Instead, the 3,010 supporters who travelled across England to watch the Amber and Blacks lose yet again at the weekend are calling for regime change at the club.

Their anger is not only targeting the owners, the Fosun Group; they also mocked Pereira for leaving it until the last 15 minutes of the game before bringing on their giant striker, Tolu Arokodare.

The Wolves’ dressing room is falling apart and several players are unhappy with the coach and the owners. They are getting tailed off at the bottom of the table with only two points. The team seem incapable of scoring goals after losing some of their best players during the summer break.

Jørgen Strand Larsen has been struggling with an Achilles injury and is well out of form. He is yet to score this season. Pereira explained to us that Larsen cannot train properly at the moment but he still has to play. He said: “The problem of Jorgen is that he’s not working every day; in the last weeks, he worked one or two times in the week and it is difficult to get to his best level. He needs to control the pain in the tendon… he’s not the Jorgen I saw last season, pressing everybody. Now he is struggling in the pressing, struggling to do what he wants to do and attack spaces. I need to defend him.”

Losing Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri hit the club hard, and Pereira’s problem is that his other options up front are not really good enough.

Next up for Wolves are Burnley at home this weekend — if they do not win, it is hard to see how Pereira will survive, and the fans could turn ugly against the owners.

West Ham supporters protest in force

Before West Ham’s disastrous 2-0 defeat to Brentford on Monday evening, West Ham supporters once again mounted a protest to rid their club of the owners, David Sullivan and Karren Brady.

The fans had already called for a total boycott of the game and last month, before the Crystal Palace defeat, they even marched on the director’s private entrance to the London Stadium, home to the Hammers.

They also protested at the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal, and at the end of the Brentford home game, half of the Hammers’ seats were empty.

Monday saw new coach Nuno Espírito Santo in charge of his first home game, and, regrettably, this fine manager should encounter such anger at his new club.

Nuno is winless in his first three games and the team look completely lost. He has a big job to do, and distractions surrounding club ownership and unhappy supporters are not going to help his challenge.

As if reading my mind as I arrived to watch the match, the supporters issued a statement which read:

“We would like to welcome our new manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, and his coaching staff to the club and wish them all the very best as they work together to improve performances on the pitch and put West Ham United back on track.

As you will no doubt be aware, before you arrived at the club, we launched the No More BS campaign, which is calling for the resignations of Karren Brady and owner David Sullivan. This campaign was not aimed at your predecessors; it is not aimed at you and your team and we would like to take this opportunity to make it absolutely clear that you have our full support.”

In another move, the supporters have drawn up a petition against the owners and it will be handed in to the board of directors, having already gained 15,000 signatures.