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In the week where the end of Jurgen Klopp’s first great frontline became indisputable a new attacking trident repeated the trick that Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane so often delivered, ripping Manchester United to pieces in a result that acts as a valuable reality check for both sides.
Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo have an awfully long way to go before they can claim to be as devastating as Mohamed Salah’s former hunting partners but a brace each in a 7-0 win is quite the way to start, the biggest win against their great rivals for a side who beat them 4-0 and 5-0 last season. Most importantly of all, there is a path for these three to discover the same multiplicative powers that made Firmino, Mane and Salah the four most terrifying words in European football for a time.
These three will be different: no one in the Liverpool side of old rampaged around the field with the irrepressible bullishness of Nunez, an aerial menace and pressing dervish. Salah himself has had to adapt for the good of the team this season. Once more at Anfield, the Egyptian was more frequently to be found by the right touchline than drifting into the middle, Trent Alexander-Arnold instead utilizing the right half spaced to display his range of incisive passing. Of course, when the chance did come to inflict for Salah some damage on the breakaway he needed no second invitation, a thunderous right-footed drive to add a further veneer of humiliation to a woeful United collapse.
Knitting it all together was another false nine. Jurgen Klopp wanted to keep Firmino long after it was apparent that he was a faded force because of his selfless qualities, the way in which he accentuates the play of those around him, a No. 9 who would be more than willing to sacrifice his own shots if a teammate is better placed. Those qualities are hard to find but Liverpool have previous when it comes to talent spotting in advanced areas.
There were far more questions over Gakpo, who arrived on Merseyside a curious figure: too tall and short on that burst that makes for a top-class winger but with no track record that he could be a pure number nine. The goal return was outstanding but had his £44 million transfer fee been earned on the back of an unsustainable hot streak of long-range scoring? Certainly the 23-year-old looked an awkward fit in those first few games in a red shirt. Now, with four goals in his past five league games, he is starting to click into place.
This result might feel like one that crash-landed from the late 2010s but, as Liverpool’s outgoing data chief Ian Graham noted in the week, the performances had been there. In many ways, this was a slightly elongated reprise of the devastating opening against Real Madrid 12 days ago, a match where Nunez and Gakpo fizzed with menace before those behind them fizzled out. There were opportunities for United to punish lax defending, even a moment of excessive swagger from Alisson that might very well have left the goalkeeper ashen-faced.
Their visitors never seemed to be in the state to exploit such errors. Marcus Rashford has been xG busting since the World Cup, it is only natural in such circumstances that he might stud his best chance straight at Alisson. Casemiro might just have been tired or perhaps an early injury hampered him. Whatever the explanation, he was not the one-man midfield that has covered so many imperfections in this team. United had feasted on a favorable fixture list of late but even after their run of wins, they had the underlying metrics of a team that were more likely to be battling for third and fourth than seriously testing Arsenal and Manchester City.
That suggests this is a team that should not be ripped to shreds by any version of Liverpool. But too many in white surrendered themselves to the red wave. Bruno Fernandes responded with a petulance that bore all the hallmarks of the Ralf Rangnick interregnum. Maybe exiling Cristiano Ronaldo did not slay the mentality monsters in the Old Trafford closets.
Erik ten Hag has already proven that he can get a reaction from his side after humiliation but this team were supposed to have improved to the level where they did not run the risk of embarrassment. Instead, they have been mortified once more by their greatest foe. Gakpo and Nunez will fancy a few more games like this in the years to come.
