Liverpool’s 7-0 dream win is Man United’s worst nightmare

For Liverpool, it was the wildest of goals.

For Manchester United, the worst nightmare in what has been such a promising first season in cost for supervisor Erik ten Hag.

Liverpool’s 7-0 rout of United within the Premier League on Sunday has the potential to have a long-lasting influence on each groups’ ambitions this time period.

It was United’s worst aggressive defeat in additional than 90 years, having misplaced by the identical scoreline on three earlier events — the final time coming in 1931 in opposition to Wolverhampton.

The consequence additionally eclipsed Liverpool’s earlier finest victory in opposition to arguably its fiercest rival, which was a 7-1 win in 1895.

“A few months ago everyone thought it was a good moment to play Liverpool — you can’t say it publicly, but everyone thought it — because they felt we were struggling a lot,” supervisor Jurgen Klopp mentioned. “But now it is less of a good moment, we look much more like ourselves. It is important that everyone knows we are here, and we are still alive.”

A landmark win may very well be the launchpad for a strong end to the marketing campaign for Liverpool, a push for Champions League qualification and probably extra.

Ten Hag, in the meantime, should hope his gamers reply within the method they did after humbling losses in opposition to Brentford and Manchester City this season, which sparked spectacular undefeated runs.

A four-pronged trophy pursuit now appears to be like extremely unlikely, with third-place United 14 factors adrift of league chief Arsenal. But after profitable the League Cup final week, Ten Hag’s facet stays in competition for the FA Cup and Europa League, in what nonetheless has the potential to be a triumphant marketing campaign.

Not that the Dutchman was within the temper to search for the positives within the instant aftermath of what was additionally his worst-ever defeat as a supervisor.

“That for me is unprofessional,” he mentioned. “I’m really disappointed and angry. We let our fans down. As a squad, as a team, you cannot allow this.

“You have to stay collectively and help one another and combat for one another. You need to defend. We didn’t try this and for me that’s actually unprofessional.”

Ten Hag has endured his share of tough days in his first season in charge of the 20-time league champions.

United lost 4-0 to Brentford in only the second game of the campaign and was beaten 6-3 in his first Manchester derby.

“I do know this group will reset, and now we have to bounce again, and now we have proven previously we will,” he said.

Klopp has had his own problems this term as his team has struggled to cope with the departure of Sadio Mane last summer.

Until recently, even a Champions League qualifying top-four finish looked in doubt, with Liverpool suffering bruising losses to Brentford, Brighton and Wolverhampton since the start of 2023.

This win, however, closes the gap to fourth-place Tottenham to three points with a game in hand.

It was also evidence of a growing understanding between Liverpool’s new-look attack as Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah all scored twice, with Roberto Firmino adding the other.

“It was probably the greatest performances for an extended, very long time. Everybody noticed how good the boys may be,” Klopp said. “No one was doubting Darwin’s future influence. Cody performs in essentially the most troublesome space within the pitch in opposition to a man-marking facet, which is tremendous tough. Mo is Mo.”

With fourth place now in sight, Liverpool fans might yet dream of an unlikely comeback in the Champions League round-of-16 game against Real Madrid later this month.

While European champions Madrid lead 5-2 after the first leg at Anfield, this was the type of performance to make the Merseyside club believe anything is possible.

Klopp’s assessment of Sunday’s game was concise: “Freak consequence, high efficiency.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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