John Aldridge believes Liverpool will have massive regrets from their 3-2 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
After a wretched first-half performance which unsurprisingly drew scathing derision from Roy Keane, the Reds fought back from 2-0 down at the interval to equalise by the 55th minute, only for Kobbie Mainoo to ultimately secure all three points – and Champions League qualification – for the home side.
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The defeat shouldn’t greatly harm our own prospects of being in that competition next term – Opta’s calculations rate the chances of that happening at 98.35% after Monday’s results – but the manner of it still left a bitter aftertaste for those of an LFC persuasion.
Aldridge: United were ‘there for the taking’ on Sunday
In his latest column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldridge found it ‘strange’ that Arne Slot’s team didn’t go for the jugular after getting it back to 2-2, with their hosts seeming rattled by the concession of the goals to Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo.
He wrote: ‘Liverpool’s defeat at Manchester United on Sunday was hugely disappointing. The first half was not good at all. The second half was a lot better, but as soon as we got to 2-2 we took our foot off the pedal.
‘United were there for the taking. They’d gone. But we slowed it down instead of going for another goal. It was strange. To get beat again – we’ve seen it so many times this year – especially against them, it hurts. Really, it’s their cup final because they’ve got nothing else to go for.’
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Liverpool had United on the ropes but ended up suffering knockout blow
There was a discernible mood shift at Old Trafford after Senne Lammens’ blunder which led to Gakpo’s equaliser, with the home fans seemingly not quite able to believe how a game of which they had firm control had swiftly been restored to parity.
As Aldridge says, that was Liverpool’s opportunity to land further blows while they had Man United rocking. However, between the start of the second half and Mainoo’s 77th-minute winner, the shot count was only narrowly in our favour at 7-6 (WhoScored).
That spell after the leveller felt akin to the FA Cup quarter-final at the same venue two years ago when the Reds were all over their hosts in the second half but failed to put them away, got caught with a late equaliser and then lost at the death in extra time.
Slot’s team did plenty of the heavy lifting by recovering from 2-0 down so quickly, but they didn’t fully capitalise on the significant momentum shift at 2-2, and the Red Devils were always likely to find their second wind so long as they didn’t fall behind.
That’s twice this season that Man United have beaten Liverpool with winning goals in the final 15 minutes. At least it wasn’t stoppage time (as has been the case for LFC many times this term), but Aldridge’s regrets from Sunday will be shared by Kopites.
Whenever the teams next face each other, we can only hope the Reds learn from what happened at the weekend and gain their revenge.