9 months on from a 3-0 win at Old Trafford - the reds were humbled 3-0 by a distinctly average looking Man United.
Brendan Rodgers finally dropped the hapless Simon Mignolet (about 15 matches later than he should) but without a striker the reds failed to convert the chances they were gifted throughout this game.
Liverpool actually performed better than in many of this seasons games, but their ludicrous summer transfer strategy again left them without a striker in the first XI.
Raheem Sterling should have had a hat-trick, but his abysmal finishing proved why many continue to question the hype surrounding the 20 year old attacking midfielder.
Mario Balotelli was sent on for the second half - but he too failed to add to his zero Premier League goals for Liverpool in what is turning out to be the season of hell for Brendan Rodgers, Ian Ayre and the rest of the transfer committee.
The big news from the team news was the re-appearance of Brad Jones. Massively overdue, but surprisingly arriving just after one of Mignolet's only decent performances of the season.
In the 12th minute Raheem Sterling hesitated in front of goal - and within 20 seconds a solid counter-attack by United saw Wayne Rooney ruthlessly dispatch the ball into the net.
Glen Johnson limped off midway through the first half - allowing Liverpool's player of November, Kolo Toure, to be brought on.
In the 40th minute an Ashley Young cross was headed on by Van Persie to the clearly offside Juan Mata who headed in. It was at least a yard offside but was given, in typical Old Trafford fashion. The clearest mistaken offside seen for years in the Premier League - but the only mistake that can be forgiven on behalf of Brendan Rodgers in this sorry mess.
At half time, Adam Lallana was replaced by Mario Balotelli. This is the Adam Lallana who had shown a lot of promise and managed to commit some United players to yellow-card challenges in the first half. Meanwhile Joe 'Sideways' Allen was still on the pitch.
Liverpool had chances to get back into this game but Raheem Sterling's profligacy in front of goal made a mockery of his hesitation over signing a new Liverpool deal. Mario Balotelli also should have got on the scoresheet. Eternal optimists may point to brilliance from De Gea, but pragmatists like us refuse to believe that De Gea would have stopped great footballers firing those balls in.
In the 71st minute Dejan Lovren cleared (in his view) the ball 6 yards to Juan Mata who passed to Van Persie to fire in. A sorry 'clearance' from arguably Liverpool's worst purchase in the 122 year history of the club.
The game ebbed away and a rather poor Man United find themselves a huge 10 points clear of Liverpool in the Premier League table. As Brendan Rodgers goes to sleep wishing he had Roy Hodgson's points total from 2010-11 the knives will no doubt be getting sharpened at Anfield, or a few thousand miles away in Boston.
With games against Bournemouth in the League Cup quarter final and 'top four' challengers Arsenal next weekend the Liverpool boss could well be entering a monumental week in his career.
The question for Liverpool fans is how many others should be held accountable for the mess created from this summer.
I had Gooners telling me last year that Rodgers was clueless and that having no European matches and the brilliant Suarez was making him look good. And they were right. Suarez hid Rodgers enormous failings, and any other top team would’ve won the league with him in the side. Plus the 10+ games we played less last season than all the other top sides clearly gave him a huge advantage with midweek rests and less injuries.
No hiding place now. He spaffed over £100m on utter dross! Why didn’t Sanchez come to Liverpool? Because he had never heard of Rodgers, that’s why! The man is a joke. I still cringe at the thought of him in the Liverpool documentary and all the ‘David Brent’ crap he was saying in that. SACK THIS IDIOT NOW AND GET KLOPP!!!
Sanchez didn’t come to us because he could see there is never a chance to win the prem.
The turning point to the current nightmare we are living was the conviction that Lambert and eventually Balotelli could make up for the absence of Luis Suarez. Business wise it was a gamble but in reality it was such a naive approach.
If Brendan was the main man behind such a decision then he was excessively overconfident and he lacked vision.
Wasn’t he aware that the schedule would be ver hectic with cups, the league and Cl to compete on?
Didn’t he foresee the possibility of injury for Sturidge?
Didn’t he have enough experience to know that both Lambert and Balotelli can not create any chances to score but they are just strikers who can score mostly within the box or at best ambushed behind a scorer such as Suarez or even Aguero?
Hasn’t he witnessed the catastrophe that Totenham faced when buying players haphazardly to compensate for Bale?
If he was really experienced, if he was a really forward-looking manager, with a realistic plan for lfc in mind, then the answers to the above questions would have been YES. Unfortunately the results until now and particularly THIS WEEk make it increasingly likely that the answers are just NO, NO, NO and NO.
Should he go? The answer is unfortunately YES, … Yes because, we badly need a manager to inspire confidence to the team and the fans in order to get something this time.
The killer question, posed in this piece, is one that is long overdue. Rodgers should not face the inevitable firing squad alone. The Transfer Committee is a monumental failure. For too long we have overpaid for at best prospective average talent and sold our own youth at undervalue. Add to this the fact that the numpty who sanctioned money being squandered on the fur-hatted matchday trinkets, needs to now pay with their job. Mr Ayre, at a time of meteoric rises in ticket prices, did you ever stop to question this folly ? Or was it your own deeply flawed genius who gave us this ?
As for charlatan salesmen peddling strategic dossiers on footballing strategies, thanks but the flush is well and truly busted. Gone is the talisman who lifted performances, created the space and belief needed for others to express themselves and who clearly motivated the ‘group’ to punch well above their weight. What is left is a man devoid of ideas and hopelessly out of his depth.
Tell you what Brendan, I am a reasonable man. Prove me wrong. But for Christ’s sake do it now. Before January. Before the season is lost. If you cannot, please do the honourable thing and do the decent thing (something that others less noble were not prepared to do) and leave without emptying our meagre coffers.
Seasons already lost.
Like pretty much every year.
We start with promise , faith , then it’s back to the usual.
Lets face it we will be in the shadow of 20 titles for years and years.
Sadly you may be right the season may already be gone. If so, let’s at least look forward. We do not have the money to buy our way out of trouble, but we do still have some promising youth left to build around. Let’s get those not already in and around the first team blooded for next year. Accept that we won’t have another £200m to squander but a new keeper is a must have. In the meantime we can cull the remaining deadwood drawing big wages. Glen, get ya bags packed lad …
Joking aside, just wanted to hear the reality has set in again lads.
amusing.
20 times, 20.
Enjoy mid table…
To quote the Lord.
“My greatest challenge is not what’s happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that.
FACT 😉
Totally disagree, we were beaten by a team in transition, who haven’t yet clicked .
They are also missing key players, di maria.. this could have been much worse.
Sure they are not playing brilliantly, neither are we , but
Love or hate them, they are picking up points.
Suddenly the way they spent their money looks stupidly good to our 100m.
Will take another 200m to get us out of this situation.
An awful Liverpool team with no confidence outplay that long ball garbage at Old Trafford for 90minutes and defeat themselves 3-0!, Rodgers OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Rodgers is probably Liverpool’s worst ever manager. He is utterly and totally clueless. But there still isn’t much point in replacing him unless you get someone better – and who would take over a sinking ship like Liverpool? Even if a top man came he would see the likes of Joe Allen and all the other hopeless nonentities facing him – no matter how good a manager you are you can’t get Sunday League players to perform at Premier level. The simple fact is – 2015 will be an agonising year for the club.