Liverpool vs Man United 2-2: English Premier League – as it happened

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“The lad came for nothing and if he leaves for nothing, I would have no criticism of him for that,” Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “But he would have known Real Madrid are putting in a bid for him … the disappointing thing for me as a local lad, Liverpool are on the verge of another league and perhaps a Champions League win, he could be captain in a couple of years. He could put Liverpool into a very good position for years to come.”

“I’ve got no problem with him going. It’s more disappointment from my own side, I’d have loved to have played in the best team in the league. Can you bring more more titles back and be better than Manchester United?

Daniel Sturridge defended Alexander-Arnold’s position: “It’s the same for Salah, the club have allowed Trent’s contract to get to this stage. Of course, Real Madrid are going to float a bid. The club need to meet his wage demands, the same for Salah and van Dijk.”

Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge told Sky Sports: “He’s a good guy, always committed. It wouldn’t be in his personality to not be focused. It just wasn’t his game. We heard the manager talk about Gravenberch not helping in defence. Of course, we know he can defend better.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher responded: “I thought he was really poor. There was a lot of focus on him, everyone was talking about him – negatively from Liverpool fans after a potential bid from RM, only he knows if it affected him. He wasn’t a playmaker like he usually is today.

From a Manchester United perspective, Roy Keane added: “When he is not brilliant going forward … I thought they would have taken him off earlier. United were having a lot of fun going after him.”

Former United defender Gary Neville said: “The timing of the bid from Real Madrid is bad timing for him. That won’t be easy, having that distraction like that as a local lad going into a big game. Real Madrid are taking the mickey a little by putting in a low bid for him. That’s how they behave sometimes.”

Former United defender Gary Neville told Sky: “It was a massive change [from Man United], the best performance under Amorim by a mile. Different to the City game they were a little bit lucky to get the result. There is no Man U fan that woke up this morning thinking anything was going to happen but the worst.

“Ugarte, Fernandes and Mainoo controlled the game in midfield today.”

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher added: “There’s a lot of talk about the [Man United] system. I didn’t think that was the case at all. They were bad against Newcastle and that was on the manager for which players he put in there. The attacking players came back and helped midfield today. Maguire and Martinez were aggressive stepping forward as well.

“It was a little lesson to Liverpool. The players maybe got a bit carried away by how poor United were on Monday. Anfield at its best is when it’s energetic. There wasn’t one time in the first half when United had the ball and Liverpool went and won it, and the crowd got up.

“The big worry for me is Liverpool are starting to concede goals. They have more goals and attacking talent than Arsenal, but if you were Arsenal watching that, I’d be enthused. Everyone says Arsenal need to sign a striker, but Liverpool need to sign a defender. If Liverpool could get a left back in January, that would put them in a good position to go on and win the league.”

“I don’t want to say it was the training. It’s the way we faced the game, it’s the way we are competitive,” he said.

“Of course, we are going to improve in training, but it is the way we faced the game, not from the training. You can ask any fan – the way we fight, the way we kick, the way we fight for the ball. It’s so clear.”

“We are in a difficult moment. If you play against Liverpool every day, we will recover positions like that. But if you play against any opponent, we will need to do it. We have proven we can do it. The way we were really competitive – that is what we must be going forward.

“It’s not just the players, all the staff in the club. I’m happy for the performance, not for the results. But I’m really mad for the other games,” Amorim said, referring to Man United’s four-game losing streak before the draw at Anfield.

👆 @LFC are six points clear of Arsenal after today's draw with Man Utd! #LIVMUN | #FestiveFixtures pic.twitter.com/uTOw1Tq3Si

— Premier League (@premierleague) January 5, 2025

“Man United came here – confidence low, can’t win a game, and got punished earlier in the season by Liverpool by trying to play it out short and being too clever,” the former United captain told Sky. “Today they didn’t take any chances. And why would they? They sent the ball long.

“Liverpool should go the other way and be upbeat about it. You look at the league table, Liverpool were OK today. They could have lost it at the end, but they created chances.

“The key for Liverpool today was getting something out of the game. Teams will drop points. The message tonight should be they’ll take a point tonight, their attacking players were on form.”

“The expectations were so different to what we saw during the game. I get more mad because of the other games because it’s even harder to understand other things,” Amorim said.

“It’s not about the system, the technique. It’s something else and that’s hard to understand, even for the coach.

“It’s a point, a deserved point, but it’s just one point, and we should get mad. Today we should be really disappointed.”

“All in all, Man United showed up today and that is the biggest story,” the former Liverpool striker told Sky Sports. “Liverpool didn’t play to their level, [but] I wouldn’t say they didn’t show up.”

“If they took one of their three or four chances in the first 20 minutes, it could have been a different game.”

“United had a low block, and sometimes they bring the ball out from the back, but today they hit it out from Onana,” Slot explained. “We weren’t surprised; the only surprise was the lack of build-up.”

Talking about United captain Fernandes, who was named player of the match, Slot said: “Fernandes is a very good player and played a very good game today.

“United have shown many times they can show up when things are tough for them. They showed it in the FA Cup final against Man City. Dalot was a threat too, two Portugal internationals.”

Assessing Liverpool defender Alexander-Arnold’s performance, he added: “Trent has played mostly very good games for this club. There have been games when he hasn’t been at his best; today was like that. That had to do with them, Ryan wasn’t close to him either, so it was often two-on-one with Bruno and Dalot.”

“They got a big chance at the end, we feel a bit relieved,” Liverpool manager Slot said. “That is not the story of the game, in my opinion. We created much more chances than them. If I look back tomorrow, I would have hoped for more.

“If you look at the game, we had three very good chances in the first 20 minutes. Open chances. We played against very good individual players, I’ve said it many times, and you could see it today. They wanted to test themselves, wanted to compete with the best players in the league.

“We had a lot of ball possession. The ball was played mostly in their half. If you look at the last 15 minutes, you can see how well they can play, in the first 75 they only hit the ball long from Onana. They are even better than they perhaps even know themselves. For the first 75 minutes, it was clear we were more in control of the game than them and had more of the chances.”

“The result is not good enough. The performance wasn’t as good as we wanted,” Mac Allister said.

“But in the end, it was a fair result. We didn’t play as we wanted, we conceded too many chances.

“The effort was there, the mentality was there because we came back, but when you’re winning 2-1 after 75 minutes, you have to defend better and we couldn’t do it so we have to think about what we did wrong and move on.”

“Disappointed at the moment, though it could have been a lot worse with that last chance,” van Dijk told Sky Sports, referring to Maguire’s last-minute miss.

“The way we conceded the two goals was unacceptable, lazy and careless – it shouldn’t happen. It’s an easy cross and a tap-in – it’s basic things that we have to improve.

“It was always going to be a tough game. They have good players and a new manager and I don’t think they get the respect they deserve. They made it difficult for us today and it could have gone their way, but I look at my own team and we should have done a lot better.”

Man United will play at Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday and then host Southampton in the Premier League on January 16.

Liverpool will play at Tottenham in the first leg of the semifinal of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

Later, they will host Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.

Their next Premier League game will be at Nottingham Forest on January 14.

“I’m frustrated because finally I put in a proper performance, but we need to do this every week,” the Portugal international added.

“I wasn’t worried about today, I’m more worried about Southampton,” he said, referring to Man United’s next league game.

“We know how tough it is to play against Liverpool. Today was about putting effort into the game, playing with passion. It can’t stop here.”