going to Old Trafford to face Manchester United is never an easy game is it well apart from that lovely 5-nil of course now banter aside we saw how we struggled against the Red Devils last season both in the Premier League and in the FA Cup as we failed to win in any of those three encounters and this time it looked like the Reds were going to have a similar issue against the United side looking to redeem itself after their loss to Brighton but guess what even that couldn't stop the slot train as the the Reds marched on at Old Trafford stunning our Rivals with two goals in the first half before going back in the second period to deliver a mo salad dagger now we remember people saying that it was only a friendly game when we won against them by the same score line during pre season right so what exactly did happen during the game and how did R slot side March so easily to our ninth point of the Season well that's what we're here to discuss today so do hit that like And subscribe button and let's jump stra straight into our analysis so for the F consecutive game not including the first half of the ipswitch Town Encounter of course AR slot kept his faith in the same starting 11 once again following the famous saying never change your Winning Side Allison started in the goal with Van Dyke and Ibraham aate as the center back partnership Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson obviously kept their places as the fullbacks with the same Midfield Trio of Ryan graur Alexis mallister and Dom of bosly the front line just like the rest of the starting 11 remained unchanged with Mo Salah Lewis Diaz and dieo and by the way while we're at it we would love to thank Manchester United for letting us play with an extra man during the first half we'll let you know who he is later on so we can all agree that the Reds have started the game kind of slow allowing United to keep the ball and focus their attacks on the left hand side with rashford Dall and Bruno now our opposition managed to do so because similar to the brenford game Liverpool's pressing was not as intense as we are used to seeing you can notice here the amount of passes manchest United made with their defensive third they even managed to have more ball possession than us which isn't something usual to see from them but also unusual to AR slot who averaged the second highest possession percentage so far this campaign with 61.5 2% and again guys this was all because our players were not bothered by pressing United high up the pitch now we heard all this talk about how aggressive R slot likes to win the ball back high and how his pressing is similar to Jurgen kops that we all loved and enjoyed now we're coming here to say that the reds are not pressing enough well there's the trick that we need to explain so here is out you see we talked about slots Liverpool becoming a more flexible side with the ball using different buildup shapes from the 334 424 and 325 we saw it all so far under the new manager however this flexibility isn't limited to in possession aspect of things see lining up in a 424 shape out of possession AR slot's men were more than happy to allow Manchester United to circulate the ball in their own third during the buildup phase the first line of press outside of some movement here and there was basically static allowing the opposition all the time in space in the world but here's where it gets interesting once Manchester United's players stopped circulating the ball in their area and went on to play the first progressive pass Liverpool's second line of pressing consisting of grenberg mallister and one of canate or van dijk where they're first to make the jump and intercept the ball you can see here that the majority of the interceptions we made were in the middle third here the plan was clear let United build up from the back but once they decide to pass the ball to Mayo or casemiro make the jump immediately and regain intensity this didn't only let the Reds win the ball while United's playing were charging forward and leaving spaces in behind but that static front four we were talking about was also ready to pounce on the chance providing even more favorable conditions for the Reds to take advantage of see we gave United the first warning with that Trend goal that got disallowed due to offside the ball was intercepted in the middle of the pitch before grenberg received the ball and drove past all of the United midfield before laying the ball to Diaz Who provided the assist for Trent unfortunately though Salah had a touch that deemed the goal offside but 34 minutes into the game and a certain Manchester United player fell straight into slot's pressing trap yes it's the same player we said that we should be thankful for for Manchester United to allow us play with an extra man it's casemiro and we believe he's been a great number six for us during the game see the goal came with graur once again intercepting a pass from casemiro before driving the ball and letting sah sprinker was Final creativity setting Lis Diaz for the opener 7 minutes later Lis Diaz returned to haunt Manchester United fans and casemiro specifically after pressing the Brazilian from behind to help the Reds regain possession before United launched their attack again with the ball reaching mosalah the Egyptians showed once again what type of creative monster of years providing his fourth assist of the season in three games with Lis Diaz adding his third goal of the campaign the second half continued in the exact same manner with Liverpool keeping their pressing traps deep in Midfield rather than high up the pitch take a look here you can see how the initial fourman pressing line was happy to let United have the ball but once that long pass was played to Missouri on the right hand side the second pressing line led by mallister instantly made the jump which led to our team regaining possession United was circulating possession comfortably in their own third but once they decided to play the ball through that initial pressing ball mallister was there to make the jump on kobby Manu and just like that macka outmuscled the young midfielder throwing him to the ground and leaving him there before passing the ball to S bosly Who provided the assist to our Egyptian king the rest of the game was kind of a walk in the park despite United having a one or two chances to score yes we could have added a fourth and a fifth after salah's goal but we still felt there was something lacking from the Reds see this United side thrives in chaotic matchups that's why they gave us problems last season as we accepted to partake in those transition based style of play this game although we saw a different approach out of possession that was 100% efficient we felt that the team still didn't learn from last season's games and instead of slowing down the tempo and controlling possession we were ready to play United's game with back and forth football don't get us wrong we can't really ask for any more from the team after all nothing gets better than a 3-n thrashing of United on their own turf but we would have loved to see us dominate the game and let them submit to Iowa style for the majority of the match now moving on to the two players we would want to talk about the first is obviously Mo Salah who managed to score in his seventh consecutive encounter against Manchester United we can say that he is the devil for them right see many were speculating that Salah might leave this summer including us after we saw some reports but it's easy to forget just how good of a football player he is isn't it and for that we should all apologize to Mo because he simply is one of a kind his physical levels are still up there with the best in the world and his creativity looks to be improving in this R slot system and let us not talk about his finishing that is getting back to his best this season we can say confidently Edwards and his team should consider giving Salah a pen with a blank paper to get a new contract because it looks like the Egyptian is like fine wine he's only getting better with time now the second player that we would like to discuss is Ryan grenberg the Dutchman had plenty of question marks around him last season and during his campaign with the club refusing to sign a new number six after Martin Zuber Mendy everyone had their doubts about graber's ability to fill that role however by the looks of it grab is growing into that position game by game and against united we saw a brilliant defensive performance from him Not only was he behind Trent's ruled out goal and D as his opener but he also denied the opposition any Central progression winning two out of his two tackles all while making four interceptions if grav keeps on improving in performing consistently this way then it makes perfect sense why the Reds have decided not to sign another Midfield of this window of course Lis Diaz also needs a mention as he was deadly during the game and if Lucho can keep on finding his shooting boots consistently like this then Annie slaugh has got himself exactly the type of Winger that he wants with nine points out of nine and with Arsenal being the first title contenders to hit a stumbling block Liverpool are top of the league alongside Manchester City don't get us wrong the season is still long but with the team improving from from one game to another we can only be optimistic of what is ahead this campaign so what do you think about this out of possession approach on a slot adopted against Manchester United do you think we'll keep seeing this flexibility throughout the campaign let us know your thoughts in the comment section below and if you enjoyed today's analysis why not hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for more lpool content thank you and I'll see you next time take care peace