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Manchester United suffered a devastating 3-0 loss at the hands of bitter Premier League rivals Liverpool.
A brace from Luis Diaz and a Mohamed Salah strike was all Liverpool needed to hand United their second consecutive Premier League defeat, heading into the international break.
United surprisingly had 53% possession to Liverpool’s 47% share of the ball.
Erik ten Hag’s men had eight cracks at goal, but only tested Alisson thrice. In comparison, the Merseysiders managed three shots on target from their total 11 shots.
The Red Devils put together 492 passes with a pass accuracy of 82%. Liverpool on the other hand strung 453 passes with a success rate of 84%.
Most of the United players were simply not up to the level and were disappointing, including new signing Joshua Zirkzee.
Zirkzee started his first game for the club since joining earlier in the summer from Serie A outfit Bologna.
During the 86 minutes he was on the pitch, Zirkzee registered two shots on target but couldn’t hit the target. He missed two big chances and in the process, perhaps the opportunity to get United back into the match.
He embarked on three dribbles but couldn’t complete any of them. He successfully delivered 15 of the 21 passes he attempted and touched the ball 33 times.
Zirkzee didn’t make a key pass, didn’t cross the ball and didn’t attempt to connect with a long ball.
The Netherlands international was poor defensively. He lost all six ground duels he delved into and was beaten in the air on all four occasions he rose to challenge for the ball.
He failed to put in even a single tackle, interception or make a clearance.
The striker lost possession of the ball 13 times.
(Stats obtained from Sofascore)
Zirkzee was eventually taken off and replaced by Christian Eriksen. The former Bologna man certainly has a lot to do to get fully up and running at United.
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2024-09-01 17:16:03
