Liverpool 1-2 Man United: 5 talking points as Mo Salah struggles spell panic

Chaos descended on a nervous Anfield as Liverpool were forced to go nuclear again, but could not avoid a crushing 2-1 home defeat to Man United.

Liverpool 1-2 Man United

Premier League (8) | Anfield
October 19, 2025

Goals: Gakpo 78′; Mbeumo 2′, Maguire 84′

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1. What style of football are Liverpool playing?

It’s a pretty pertinent question and one that causes worry when being asked in late October, particularly when there is no clear answer.

It’s understandable that Arne Slot‘s men were never going to roll out this season and play with exactly the same battle plan as the previous decorated campaign. Tactics are sussed out, for one, and also Liverpool do not have the same personnel.

Yet what is unfolding on a weekly basis right now, to much frustration, is Liverpool bursting to life in fits and starts, before fading into uncertainty. Rinse and repeat in cycles for 90 minutes and that’s another match passed by.

In the first 45, the player with arguably more space than anyone else was Milos Kerkez, who enjoyed a generous channel of space down the left. The Hungarian was able to take passes across his body time and time again, before progressing and sweeping in his trademark searching crosses, arcing inward through the penalty spot and hanging towards the back post. It was seen time and time again to devastating effect for Bournemouth last season… but this isn’t what Liverpool needed today.

With Mohamed Salah making inward runs, and £125m Isak certainly not brought in to be an aerial talisman, said crosses repeatedly veered in and then out of danger, as United cleared.

The Reds then also saw some serious joy with the old school rapid counter-attacking bursts, with Cody Gakpo lashing the post after a sublime sequence of passes. But no sooner do Liverpool try that, they revert quickly back to measured, intricate build-up.

Switching styles with ease is what elite level football is all about, Slot needs no lecturing on this topic. Right now, however, the paradox feels like a fairly unworkable one.

 

2. Mo Salah is struggling

We need to talk about Salah. There is a huge and valid argument to be made in defence of Salah, given the vast upheaval in personnel at the attacking end of the field.

In the opening weeks it felt as though the Egyptian was having to temper his approach and rein in some of his usual indulgences in terms of where he operates for the good of others – but now something is appearing to cut a little deeper.

Salah looks off the boil and a measure less composed. As picked up upon by both Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, he’s losing possession more frequently than is the norm, and his decision-making in the split second moments is uncharacteristically lacking.

After the sizeable substitution shuffle on the hour mark, Salah’s instant loafing of the ball into the Kop, rather than cut inside to the completely open Wirtz, simply wasn’t good enough.

This is United at home, the fixture of all fixtures. Salah doesn’t need reminding of this – but when he falls well under par in this match, the alarm bells have to start ringing. We’re fast approaching the point where Salah may have to start a Premier League match from the bench. Unthinkable, but needs must.

 

3. Jigsaw jinx after ‘statement’ summer

We hear it all too often, the ‘final piece of the puzzle’ being acquired by whichever football club. It’s a novel concept and one that has never really made much or any sense; a team is never completed, but merely improved upon.

That’s exactly what Liverpool have done this season, but it’s far from plain sailing – that much is clearly apparent. A title-winning team has been enhanced by some of the hottest names on the continent, but the cohesive blending of these stars remains the burning issue. It’s now highly problematic.

What makes it harder to stomach right now is the fact that Liverpool haven’t gone on a PSG or Real Madrid Galacticos-era binge of hoarding big names, they’ve delved into the market for the best possible players in the positions they needed.

And yet… the gelling remains immensely difficult. It may well have been built into the thought process all along that this would have to be the immediate trade off, and seen as little cause for concern within FSG Towers.

Regardless of whether this is the case, it feels somewhat baffling to have to take to a fixture against United – at Anfield – and not be able to field your two record signings in the starting XI from the off.

There’s a time and a place for patience, and there certainly isn’t enough of it in Premier League football… but Liverpool cannot fall into a routine whereby Isak and Florian Wirtz don’t feature in the same team together. The logic doesn’t check out.

Liverpool knew both of these talents were desirables number one and two. The dream signings, if you will. It’s very rare a club manages to get two over the line in one transfer window. Surely, then, some planning was done behind the scenes to facilitate how this all fits together?

 

4. Tactical torture has to end

The array of substitutions is getting dizzying. We’re seeing it week in and week out now, hinting that it’s either the battle plan to drastically and chaotically shake up a match at the hour mark or, worryingly still, it’s the panic button that Slot now has a habit of reaching for.

These are elite level players with incredibly high football intelligence, but playing in several formations per game – with individual interchanging roles – feels like taking the piss at this point. It does beg the question, does anyone know their intended role?

And will said intended role be changing in the next 15 minutes, or what?

Liverpool entered the final third of this fixture with Wirtz and Curtis Jones as a two-man midfield, with just the four attackers ahead of them.

Moments later the full-back signed in the summer was introduced as an attacking winger. It’s madness, and it makes the end-to-end frenetic fire shows of the Jurgen Klopp era look tame in comparison.

The poor results are piling up now and Slot can ill-afford to continue such bipolar decision making on a mass scale. It doesn’t feel in keeping with everything Liverpool have built upon over the past year, nobody seems to believe in it and opponents are sniffing it out confidently.

 

5. Ibrahima Konate is back

A rare and quite possibly the only positive today, the performance of Ibrahima Konate set the bar of what Liverpool defenders should aspire to, and was a timely reminder of everything the big Frenchman can offer.

Worryingly, it was also a sober signal as to just why Real Madrid have sights firmly set on him becoming their next big-name free agent.

Konate read the game expertly and kept cool while heads around him were lost.

It’s unusual to see Virgil van Dijk carried in fixtures, especially at Anfield, but Konate was his life raft today.

The defence has been a pressing concern this season, but it serves as a reminder that Liverpool have some serious footballers across the back line – they just have to learn how to play together again.