Manchester United dropped points for only the second time this season as we were held 0-0 at Liverpool in today’s lunchtime kickoff.
In a poor performance from Jose Mourinho’s side Simon Mignolet was forced into only one save all game whilst David de Gea had to make five. It is the third consecutive draw between us two, all since Jose Mourinho took charge.
Liverpool ended the game with 62% of the possession. The result keeps us seven points ahead of our rivals but only one point above Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table with Pep Guardiola’s side’s game in hand kicking off in 40 minutes at home to Stoke City.
Here are how our players fared today:
David de Gea 9 – The busier of the two goalkeepers and made an excellent save to deny Joel Matip from close range in the first half.
Antonio Valencia 7 – Stuck with Philippe Coutinho early on before the Brazilian moved in field. Roberto Firmino found some join down this side the longer the game went on.
Phil Jones 8 – Made a couple of blocks and didn’t give Roberto Firmino any clear-cut opportunities. Very sloppy in conceding possession outside his own penalty area early in the second half.
Chris Smalling 8 – Despite all of Liverpool’s possession and territory we did restrict the number of good opportunities.
Matteo Darmian 8 – A busy game at left-back up against Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian’s best chance came courtesy of a rebound. Matteo Darmian won lots of tackles and made a few interceptions before looking tired heading into the final 20 minutes.
Nemanja Matic 9 – Made some important tackles and interceptions as well as closing down key players off the ball to prevent a number of threats around our penalty area. Was composed on the ball.
Ander Herrera 8 – Got himself around a bit, throwing himself into tackle after tackle in an important role to keep the likes of Coutinho at bay.
Ashley Young 5 – A very quiet game down the right wing and didn’t always get back when Alberto Moreno was attacking down our side. A frustrating game going forward for Ashley Young.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5 – Aside from a clever one-two with Lukaku before half-time, it was a virtually anonymous performance from Henrikh Mkhitaryan who didn’t look after the ball too well in the few ventures forward that we had. Replaced by Jesse Lingard just after the hour mark.
Anthony Martial 6 – Got back to defend but we had little going forward.
Romelu Lukaku 5 – A frustrating game up front for Romelu Lukaku who had only made one touch in the opening 23 minutes. Poor effort on goal just before half-time inside the penalty area after an excellent one-two with Mkhitaryan.
Substitutes
Jesse Lingard 5 – Came on for the final half hour to offer fresh legs but spent most of his time closing down opposition as we didn’t see much of the ball.
Marcus Rashford 5 – Didn’t offer the threat in the final 20 minutes as we expected going into the game. Mainly because we simply never got out of our own half very often.
