They were 2-1 down at Old Trafford with less than 10 minutes to go, so Liverpool have to take some positives from Sunday’s draw with Manchester United.
After being so dominant – they had more control of that match at half-time than I’ve seen them have against anyone for a very long time – they could have felt sorry for themselves after falling behind.
Instead they showed fight and spirit, to come back and leave with a point.
Still, my over-riding feeling was that it should have been more. A draw is certainly not the end of the world for Jurgen Klopp’s side in the Premier League title race, but it feels like a big opportunity has been missed.
The reality is that Liverpool had enough chances in the first half to win two or three games, and with the quality of the forward players they have got, you just don’t expect them to miss that many.
An amazing lack of defensive discipline
What stood out about Liverpool in the first half was their desire – their running off the ball was incredible, and they showed how badly they wanted the win.
It was a really front-foot attitude – sharp, full of energy and everything you want from an away performance when you are trying to win the league.
There was no caution and United struggled to cope. In fact, they helped Liverpool because they lacked anything like the same willingness without the ball.
Sometimes you lose games because the opposition tactics surprise you or there is a problem you can’t solve, but that wasn’t the case here. It wasn’t down to amazing play from Liverpool either.
The two teams set up in a similar 4-3-3 shape and the reality was that a lot of Liverpool’s first-half chances simply came off the back of overloads, with their players left free to run off the back of United’s.
Graphic showing Liverpool’s starting XI v Man Utd: Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Robertson, Szoboszlai, Endo, Mac Allister, Salah, Nunez, Diaz
That is just basics and should not be happening at this level, certainly not as regularly as it did – in the first half it felt like it was happening every five minutes.
Whether it was Dominik Szoboszlai getting away from Casemiro or Alejandro Garnacho failing to stay close to Andy Robertson, It was amazing to watch United’s lack of defensive discipline.
Time and time again, Liverpool found themselves in two versus one, or four on three situations. United were hanging on for dear life, but a couple of great saves by Andre Onana and some poor finishing meant Erik ten Hag’s side stayed in the game.
At half-time, we were talking in the MOTD2 production office about how Liverpool might regret not finishing them off… and so it proved.
