Liverpool 7-0 Man Utd: Varane a pub player, Shaw's 'career ended', Bruno a child

Paul Macdonald

• Updated: 5 Mar 2023 19:04 GMT
• 4 min read

It has to go down as the worst half of football for Manchester United in the Premier League era - if not in their history.

It’s been a quite astonishing turn of events in the past two weeks; from United winning the Carabao Cup in confident fashion, to knocking out Barcelona in the Europa League, to qualifying for an FA Cup quarter-final.

United were back in the eyes of many, operating at a different level under Erik ten Hag, and beginning to plan for a very bright future.

READ MORE: What is Man Utd's biggest loss of all time?

And then this, the most inexplicable of performances from a set of players who simply forgot how to play the game in 45 mindless minutes.

Liverpool scored six in 45 minutes, and it quite easily could have been more. The nature of the defending had to be seen to be believed, from individuals who should really know better.

Raphael Varane is a multiple Champions League and World Cup winner, dragging himself around with the staleness and lethargy of a Sunday morning pub player who had been out the night before.

Casemiro, heralded as the saviour, failed to materialise in the second half and him and Fred were sliced to shreds. David De Gea was helpless for some goals but caught out horribly by others as balls rained past him into the net.

And Luke Shaw - it’s difficult to put into words just how poor the left-back was. He played Gakpo onside for the first goal, miscontrolled to allow Harvey Elliott to set up Darwin Nunez, and his attempted clearance gave Mo Salah an easy sixth. It’s the kind of performance that, in times gone by, might’ve been career-ending.

Make no mistake, this was apocalyptically poor. All sense of shape, of system, and tactics were totally obliterated. This was a team that folded pathetically under the scrutiny of Anfield and the relentlessness of Liverpool’s attacks. The Reds’ forwards played brilliantly but they were allowed to at every turn.

Gaps everywhere, players turning in acres of space, and United’s defenders so poor at clearing their lines that it wouldn’t have looked as bad if they were trying to throw the match. It was so mind-bogglingly inept that Ten Hag will definitely struggle to explain just what the hell happened here.

And perhaps most galling was the utter indiscipline, which actively contributed to the nature of the loss. Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay could and probably should have been dismissed for reckless tackles that harboured frustration.

Bruno Fernandes, the sometimes captain of this team, responded to adversity like a spoiled child, embarrassing himself with petty kicks and flicks and complaints to the officials. He might be misconstruing this as a show of passion - it isn’t. It’s not the behaviour of a player at Manchester United and that might be the thing that irks Ten Hag more than anything. His team totally lost the plot and all he could do was watch, and grimace.

Where do United go from here? It’s virtually impossible to gauge where this team is now. From a year filled with momentum to a nadir like this. One thing’s for sure. There are passengers that United have been carrying for too long, through good results and bad. They need to answer for this. And some likely will, with their careers.