Liverpool and boss Arne Slot can point to their injury problems – and they were far from full strength here – but there can be no excuses for their feeble first-half display, which left them two goals behind and with a mountain to climb.
Slot has spoken so often about the importance of the first goal in a game, yet for the 21st time in 54 matches this season Liverpool conceded the opener.
And only against Arsenal (2) in August 2025 have Liverpool had fewer touches in the opposition box in the first half of a league game under Slot than the four they managed at Old Trafford.
The sheer lack of fight, initially, was glaring to see.
Yet the character and quality they showed after the break to score twice in nine minutes was impressive – and it was evidence that this team does have something about them.
Manchester United were guilty of gifting the visitors – but Liverpool, lacking a centre-forward after Alexander Isak was ruled out with a minor groin injury, were still clinical.
Liverpool's player of the season Dominik Szoboszlai scored a brilliant individual goal – one that the onlooking Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Mohamed Salah would all have been proud of – before Cody Gakpo punished Senne Lammens' error.
In the grand scheme of things, without two goalkeepers, two strikers and a bench filled with youngsters, a draw at Old Trafford would have been a point gained rather than two dropped.
But Liverpool were the architects of their own downfall again, when Alexis Mac Allister made a woeful attempt to clear his lines and was made to pay by Kobbie Mainoo.
Liverpool should still secure Champions League football for next season over the coming weeks but, yet again, the barrage of problems they have were laid bare.
