Even the most hardened Van Gaal supporter will have found this difficult to accept. United produced a woefully disjointed performance and were outplayed at Anfield by Liverpool, with only David De Gea standing between United and a hammering.
The first half was basically De Gea v Liverpool. The home side took the lead through Sturridge's twentieth minute penalty, given after Memphis was adjudged to have held Clyne in the area. Even here the United keeper even got a hand to the resultant spot kick. For the rest of a half dominated by Liverpool, he kept United in the contest, making four superb saves including a point black stop from Lallana that few keepers in the world would have got to.
At the other end, United offered little. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say that we could easily have been four goals adrift at the break. Understandably, Van Gaal changed things at half-time, taking off Rashford and bringing on Carrick, who moved into a back three.
It seemed a strange formation but for a time United looked more fluent and able at least to carry some attacking threat. When Allen was introduced for Sturridge, however, it nullified the influence of Mata and Liverpool assumed control again.
Their second, when it came, resulted from a disastrous piece of defending from Carrick, who failed to clear the ball when in a position to do so, instead tapping the ball back into the path of Lallana who put in Firmino to score.
It was, in truth, no more than Liverpool deserved and the result gives United a huge mountain to climb at Old Trafford next week. Unless they can produce something far better than this, it's hard to be optimistic that they'll do so.
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