Should United have more to offer than digging a trench? 

Erik ten Hag secured a good point at Anfield, but the way it was achieved shows how bare his cupboard is right now

Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana saves a shot from Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool. Picture date: Sunday December 17, 2023. PA Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire 

The new plan is no plan. Men standing, solemnly, in a place. Covering the spaces, and then the spaces in between the spaces. Block, buffer, deny everything. You didn’t get Harry Kane and you didn’t get Frenkie de Jong and you didn’t get Declan Rice, and so here you are: watching Jonny Evans punt long balls up the touchline in the hope – nay, the dream – that Antony can maybe get on the end of it and win a throw.

And for Manchester United there should be no shame or chagrin in any of this, in the jubilation of their fans in the Anfield Road Stand as the curtain fell on this grizzled and forgettable game. This is, quite frankly, a club that could use a little more of this kind of humility, a more realistic recognition of where they stand in the taxonomy of English football. Sir Alex Ferguson was in the stands here, and even his champion sides rarely regarded a point at Anfield as a bad point.