It would be nigh on impossible to describe what Liverpool did to Manchester United on Tuesday without getting graphic and perhaps using a squib or two. And believe me, I’ve tried, because I’m aware that the Reds may never beat their biggest rivals by a combined 9-0 in two league games ever again, and I’m sucking it up to the point of pruning. Certainly United’s ruthless level of disorganization and disinterest contributed greatly to their flogging. Whether Ralf Ragnick just can’t install his ideas on these players, or they can’t execute them, or they just don’t care, the result was a team that just wandered around Anfield like it was a mall on a Tuesday afternoon and they just wanted to find the electronics store.
Ragnick’s idea of a two-man midfield in something to resemble a 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1 essentially let Liverpool’s midfield threes strut and groom as they pleased. Which became a four when Sadio Mane came in from the forward line as United’s three centre-backs all looked at each other and pointed, wondering if he’s legally allowed to do that. This type of space and separation made possible goals like these:
In general, it’s not a good idea when two of your opponents can sprint to a through ball with each other without competition. Harry Maguire, who becomes an ode to drowning with each passing week, didn’t follow Mane into midfield, nor attempt to block the ball behind him into that space, and simply stood there while the castle gate was open and said to himself himself, “Man, I hope this wandering horde doesn’t notice that the castle gate is open!”
Or that kind of haze and boredom can result in teams just riding through, over, and around you like you’re the guy in the metal sphere with the three bikers spinning wildly:
This is usually the point where you throw the controller through the drywall, knowing that the 13-year-old in Germany is giggling his ass off while he’s pairing you in FIFA. You can’t react fast enough. This only encapsulates the last few passes of the train, but it included 25 passes in the build and perhaps one of them got a United player within two yards of the ball.
Liverpool essentially slowed down then and added two late goals to win 4-0. While the 5-0 win over United at Old Trafford in the autumn was more a display of anger and recklessness as Liverpool played at a pace United simply could not match, it was more a sign of arrogant control. Liverpool didn’t need to play at pace, didn’t need to push and push and push. They just kept the ball for as long as they wanted and did whatever they wanted with it. If a football game was ever just big brother keeping his hand on little brother’s forehead to keep him at a safe distance, this was it.
As Gary Neville put it on a British show: this is nothing.
At the heart of everything Liverpool did was Thiago, who had one of the best games in the Premier League this season. Yes, he’s been given all the space and time he could have wished for in a fantasy, but special players do special things with it. Like this:
Thiago misplaced exactly five passes all night and this isn’t some guy who just throws it back to his defenders or smacks it five yards sideways to another midfielder. There are crossfield switches, 40-yard through balls, complicated changes around and through defenders. That’s all:
Liverpool had another midfielder in Xabi Alonso who could nibble a gnat in the butt with a pass from 40 yards that stole my heart. But Alonso couldn’t carve out as much space as Thiago. There is more than just passing. It’s the shoulder fakes and hip twists that get him out of and around challenges and open up the field. Thiago’s touch is feather-light to the point of farce. Until it’s time to snap a pass through the lines and into a forward that sticks like Velcro. It’s as if the ball is telling the receiver, “Hurry up, we don’t have much time!” as you take the phone to the finish line. That touch returns when Thiago levitates a crossfield ball to a winger or full-back, who lands as if he’s parachuted.
I mention the rare player who can slow down the game if he gets the ball/puck a lot. Where all other players slow down or stand still for fear of what might come next. They go into some sort of DEFCON level just hoping to protect some vents. Thiago doesn’t seem to slow everyone down, but rather has them go into slow motion while staying at the same controlled speed. Players don’t slow down or stop, he slows them down or stops them. While the last few X-Men movies sucked, the scenes where Quicksilver moved while everyone else was frozen or barely moving to illustrate how much faster he moved were always expertly done.
Thiago doesn’t move like that physically, but his mind does. He’s already selected the space or angle for a pass he wants to play twice before getting the ball. Especially if he was allowed to stroll like United did. He whips those passes 30 yards to the front three from an angle we couldn’t see, rousing everyone from a sleep he put them into. He doesn’t even go through a portal. He’s just listening to a different song or leading a different band than the other 21 players out there. It’s easy to see why Barcelona advised him to follow Xavi when the time came and why they got so upset when he didn’t want to wait.
He has his own beat and makes everyone else dance to it.
