Martinez BEAST!! ｜ 5 Things We Learned vs Liverpool ｜ Man United 2-1 Liverpool

Righty then, we are back with five things that we learned watching Manchester United beat Liverpool at home. It feels like so long since we've been able to say that, home or away actually. In at number one then, Rashford Redemption. Marcus has been poor. Last season I hope was just a blip and the season before he played on through injuries which I think was badly advised but that's probably been one of his best performances in a couple of years. He was a live wire and he was doing the things that you expect Marcus Rashford to do and some of the things that he set the standard for himself. He came out of the gate energetic, pressing, tracking and you knew that he was just going to graft all the way through. Now with whatever happened with his injury, that kind of went away and then last season for whatever reason he never looked fit and even the things that you could rely on like his pressing and his tracking back, it just weren't there and I remember a game last season where Tellez was going mental at Ronaldo because Rashford wasn't tracking and Ronaldo went and did Marcus's tracking for him. Now that's not something you would expect to see and I'm hoping he's over that because the performance last night was front foot, it was energetic, he was pressing from the front, he was looking at running behind, it was effort and I think sometimes when players are out of form you think, do you know what, just bust a gut, just bust a gut and sometimes things will fall in your lap a little bit. He played with more confidence which I don't even think he had at the start of the season. That chance that we had against Brighton where he took a touch, I think if that come last night, I think he buries it, I think he just hits it first time but he took a touch against Brighton and when you took a touch now you've got to be precise and he still hit it at the keeper. That was a player not playing with confidence, I think he thrived on the high line, I think he thrives playing against someone like Trent because he knows he's going to fall asleep on him, it was a tidy finish and he did prove to be the match winner that we said he would be in the preview. Number two, not just Marcus but the entire side, heart and desire. United covered 113.78 kilometres and completed 155 sprints against Liverpool last night and that is 51 more sprints than Liverpool who managed only 110 kilometres in total of running. We have just outrun and out sprinted the team that is known for outrunning and out sprinting everybody. Every single player showed passion and heart and a will to win and a collective team spirit to get the job done. It was the most passionate United performance that I have seen in a long time. That apathy is one of the things that turns fans off. Players and fans feed off each other in the line because they just refuse to sit down to be quiet and to be quelled and sometimes the action on the pitch can bring the best out of the players. Last night I think both turned up because of the protest Old Trafford was noisy from 30 minutes before kickoff and the players came to play and the players came to try and win that game and that collective pushed the players to run the distance they ran it and it pushed the players to the passionate performance that we saw. The players put their body on the line for the win. They worked hard. They did some brilliant shithousery. They looked like they cared and that hasn't been the case in the last six months for United and I know that's a minimum expectation is look like you give a ---- but that hasn't been there in the last probably the most of last season in all honesty. You've got to go and repeat that now. Hard work breeds success. Number three defensive brilliance. Martinez and Varane come up against what's probably one of the most difficult forward lines to play against perhaps in the world and they looked pretty assured apart from the potential own goal attempt. They looked pretty assured. They were both outstanding. They were aggressive. They were strong. They were composed and they were completely no nonsense. I like to call that our box the red zone and anytime the ball was bouncing in the red zone was cleared. Anytime there was danger in the red zone it was cleared. It was a defense in unison and I really liked seeing the players congratulate each other and high-fiving after they'd made a tackle. I like that. I really like that. Actually here's a clip from our game at the weekend where I was literally asking for that from our players. The first ******* tackle. The first ******* well hit pass. Can we ******* celebrate it and I'm not expecting us to celebrate it like a goal but can we ******* give a well done to our teammates when we're doing it. That's how much I like that. They threw themselves at every single cross, every single shot. Martinez and Varane both cramped up during the game. If that doesn't illustrate the amount of effort that both of those guys have just put in. They gave everything. Delo and Malasia were solid. Malasia in particular coming up against Mo Salah dealt with it. Luke Shaw yet again is in deep trouble and both of the centre-backs played like leaders. They took ownership of the situation and they dealt with it brilliantly and I think Martinez is going to become a cult hero at United. Number four, Martial magic continues. I thought once the rumours were circulating that Cristiano wasn't going to play it was a tap-in for Martial to play but the fact Martial only came on at half time was interesting and that second half performance did not go unnoticed. The link-up play was excellent. He was a constant threat. His only thought was forward and aggressive. His hold-up play was very good and his link play was very good. He assisted Rashford for his goal and was an actual proper focal point for the team for the entire second half. He's actually carried the bright form that we saw in pre-season into the regular league season. Now I would still go if Ronaldo goes and I think there was a the murmurings last night were there that yeah he's not going to play second fiddle to Anthony Martial and to be honest he shouldn't but if Ten Hag decides that he is going to play second fiddle and that means he's going to go then that means he goes. United still need to buy someone. I don't think Martial and Rashford despite the good performances they had last night can be trusted to lead the line in such an important position. Bring someone else in as well. Not necessarily some mega signing but just bring someone else in even if it's someone who offers something different and is a lot more combative like a lot of the players that we are being getting linked to. But yeah Tony Martial last night deserved the credit that he's got and I think he might have put himself in the window to start against Southampton this weekend. And number five we still need more. We still need more players. We still need the out. We still need consistency. We still need to pick up another three points this weekend. Ten Hag is going to have won over a lot of the dressing room if he hadn't already with his performance this week. If you analyse Ten Hag's attitude and what he's done people sometimes overestimate what a manager can impact. But when you look at the decisions that have happened this week what did he do? He started the week on Sunday by bringing the players in making them run the 13.8 kilometres that they were outrun against Brentford. For one I love that mentality and the only way that could have improved if he'd have made them run 100 metres more rather than just the exact number that they were outrun. I'd love him to have gone actually we're going to do 13.9 because they did 13.8 more than us and I think that would have been a great sort of mental thing to push the players over the edge. But either way still not bad and I like it. Then he obviously gets them into training this week. We did hear that Varane and Martinez were training together. That was something that kind of leaked out. And then what was his other thing? The big decision that he had to make was dropping Cristiano Ronaldo, dropping Luke Shaw, dropping Harry Maguire the club captain. When you look at the decisions made by the manager this week he got them all right. He got them all right. He has shown he was right to do it and the response he got from the players has been perfect. That we will not be outrun and if we are outrun you're coming in on Sunday and you're going to put that work in so you lose your day off. So that was a brilliant motivating factor and his gamble. I don't necessarily think it was as much of a gamble to drop Harry Maguire as it was to drop Ronaldo. I think dropping Ronaldo was more of a gamble because you could have been nilled but we weren't. And he dropped Ronaldo and the forward line he went with managed to score a couple of goals and combine very well to cause problems for Liverpool and the defence that you chose instead of Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw put in a sensational performance. Molassi is going to, did you notice at half time when Molassi had come walking out and I thought oh is he a bit rabbit in the headlights here because he was looking around and just sort of taking in Old Trafford a little bit. I think he's going to really grow into a player. There's a big few weeks ahead and like I said we still need more. If we don't beat Southampton and we don't beat Arsenal what was the point of beating Liverpool? That positivity last night isn't going to continue if you don't manage to pick up a victory against Southampton and Arsenal and if you do well we're back on track. Then for the price of a pint you can show your appreciation for the content that we make and get some goodies for doing so as well. Check the link in the description or click the button right here. You'll also find all of my socials here too if you want to follow me on any of those platforms.