It’s nearly 28 years since Alex Ferguson established his reputation as the master of mind-games by accusing the Leeds United players of “cheating their manager”. Manchester United had beaten a spirited Leeds to stay in the title race, and Ferguson was annoyed by Leeds’s stubborn resistance, which seemed to him out of character. “For some it’s more important to get a result against Manchester United to stop us winning the league than anything else, which, to me, they’re cheating their manager. Of course, when they come to Newcastle, you wait to see the difference.”
“He went down in my estimation when he said that,” Kevin Keegan raged – but Ferguson’s comments, far from being some outrageous slander, in fact described something that happens a lot in football and lately has been happening at Ferguson’s club more than anywhere else.
On Sunday night, after United emerged from a wild game at Anfield with a 2-2 draw, Ruben Amorim sounded like a guy who is tired of being cheated and isn’t going to take it any more.
If the Portuguese goes on to become a success at United, his impressive post-match press conference at Anfield will be remembered as a key turning-point. For once the assembled reporters were rushing to praise rather than ridicule his team, but Amorim did not get distracted. He already knew the message he wanted to deliver.
Ruben Amorim’s anger in Liverpool augurs well for Manchester United
Ken Early: The pursuit of calm, running from risk and Euro nationalism mark a mixed year of football
Liverpool enjoy Spurs’ farcical nonsense
Flash of inspiration from Amad casts Amorim’s dropping of Rashford and Garnacho as a masterstroke
“The most important thing to address today is the mentality,” he said. “And that is the key to everything. Today we were a different team, not because of the system, not because of the technical or tactical aspects of the game. We faced the competition in the way that we are supposed to face it, every day, training and match ... We need to face every day like that. I am always challenging these players, in everything I do. I feel that we are – not just the players, but everybody at Manchester United – too comfortable. We need sometimes a shock. Today we were a different team. It’s not about the system, it’s the way we face competition.”
Four defeats in the last five games had brought the coach’s adherence to 3-4-3 under scrutiny, since United’s squad looks ill-equipped to play it. But for Amorim the question of attitude comes before everything else. His team had just proved it by fighting the league leaders to a standstill – and he was furious with them.
“We lost three home games in a row. Some of the games we lost two goals without doing nothing,” he went on, with palpable disgust. “Everybody today is going to say to that team that they did a good job, so today I’m allowed to be the only guy upset with the team. Today we were a team. Today is all about the focus when you are playing football. The focus on set pieces, the focus on not passing the ball in a sloppy way ... If you have that mentality every day, you are a different team.”
It’s a good sign for United that they have finally hired another coach who understands how to counter the crazily oscillating cycles of euphoria and despair. United’s captain and man of the match, Bruno Fernandes, echoed the manager’s sentiments: “If we show this today at Anfield against Liverpool, who are first in the league ... why can’t we do this every game?”
United’s players had spent the week marinating in humiliation after a fourth defeat in five league matches, but it was clear after just a few minutes at Anfield that they had reacted to the conditions much better than Liverpool. At a time when many are complaining about the over-systematisation of football, the bad weather introduced an unfamiliar element of chaos. Pelted by freezing rain as they skittered about on a boggy pitch, the players seemed to spend most of their mental energy trying not to fall over.
But after Lisandro Martinez hammered United into the lead on 51 minutes the teams forgot their caution and went for it. It looked as though Matthijs de Ligt would end the day as the scapegoat for another United defeat, as first Cody Gakpo sent him aquaplaning off the pitch in the process of scoring Liverpool’s first, then he conceded a penalty to give Liverpool their second.
Instead the villain for the day turned out to be Trent Alexander-Arnold. Liverpool’s right-back celebrated his goal against West Ham last week with a gesture that indicated he was ignoring all the outside talk about his contract situation, only for him to become the most talked-about player in world football over the week that followed.
Alexander-Arnold’s day started badly as Diogo Dalot snapped the first pass off his toe, and he proceeded to spend the next 85 minutes making Dalot look like the young Gareth Bale at Spurs.
The Portuguese full-back was too fast, too strong and too clever for Alexander-Arnold, who contributed three separate pieces of bad defending in the build-up to Martinez’s goal. First he was outrun by Dalot, then he passed the ball to Martinez, and finally he drifted about not making a tackle or marking anybody until Fernandes picked out Martinez to score. Virgil van Dijk said after the game: “The way we conceded the two goals is unacceptable. Too easy. Lazy. It shouldn’t happen.”
Defensive errors are nothing new for Alexander-Arnold, but for once he contributed almost nothing in attack: his most impactful passes were to United players.
For United’s equaliser, Amad Diallo got to the ball before Andy Robertson. It’s interesting that many of the same Liverpool fans who think Alexander-Arnold should show “loyalty” are simultaneously howling for the fading Robertson to be replaced. That is where loyalty gets you in football. Blessed are the loyal, for they shall be thrown on the scrapheap when they can’t run any more.
It’s no mystery why joining Real Madrid would appeal to Alexander-Arnold. The interesting question is how Liverpool are thinking about it. From their point of view, the match brought into stark focus the sheer risk of offering a €94 million contract to a right-back who hardly defends – especially when you have a young and eager replacement in Conor Bradley.
Bradley did more in his 15 minutes on the pitch than Alexander-Arnold had managed in the previous 85, including a brisk shove on a United staff member who tried to stop him taking a quick throw-in. Watching Bradley tear about, you remembered that there is at least one person at Liverpool for whom Alexander-Arnold can’t clear off to Madrid quickly enough.
Can Bradley match Alexander-Arnold’s vision and ball-striking? No – at least, not yet. But Amorim would probably agree that the fierce desire with which Bradley attacked the game is closer to what really counts in football than Alexander-Arnold’s artistic flourishes.
