"I'm actually proud of him."
Those were Gary Neville’s words after Hannibal Mejbri was introduced for a brief late cameo at Anfield on Tuesday night. Why? Because he made a few sprints and attempted to make a couple of challenges.
In other words, he showed levels of spirit and desire that should be non-negotiables at a club of Manchester United’s calibre.
Hannibal admirably showed guts in spite of his tender age and distinct inexperience. But putting in such effort shouldn’t have to be something that is singled out for credit. At United right now, though, there is a glaring lack of such urgency.
For these very reasons, Roy Keane went as far as saying, "This team is not even likeable, you don't even warm to them."
Sadly, the majority would argue that Keane has a point. A great point.
From minute one, it was hardly even a contest. Instantly, it became visible that United were semi-committed to the task at hand and almost looked defeated before the game even got underway. It was essentially a walkover for Liverpool.
It looked an immense struggle for United whenever in possession in the opening exchanges, with the disparity between the sides through factors such as composure and assurance on the ball blatant from the first kick. The gulf between the sides was strikingly evident as soon as Liverpool launched a meaningful attack, with it coming as no surprise when the home side took the lead before even reaching the five-minute mark.
Hope was sparse amongst the United fanbase, but the standard of the start to proceedings and nature of the concession were alarming. Despite Ralf Rangnick opting to start with a back five, it took only a matter of minutes for the United defence to find themselves dismantled in amateur fashion.
Liverpool's incision in their buildup proved too great a challenge for United, who found themselves cut to shreds. The ball was shifted with poise that was beyond United's threshold for providing an answer, with the away side finding themselves disjointed to the extent that a vast space opened up for Liverpool to attack down their right-hand side. It was a gift.
Diogo Dalot, starting at left-back after Alex Telles came under fire for his performance against Norwich City, allowed both Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold to bypass him, with Harry Maguire stepping up into no-mans land and creating a sizeable vacancy in-behind. From there, Phil Jones (starting for only the second time this term) and Victor Lindelof were slow to react and a step behind Luis Diaz, who was able to simply latch onto Salah's ball across to finish.
Rangnick, who had spent the aftermath of the slender victory against Norwich publicly voicing his displeasure towards his defence, claimed that the decision from the United defensive line to step up and place Liverpool under duress was "not part of the game-plan".
Essentially, the United interim manager was pointing towards an inability of his players to even follow the game-plan and his instructions. And that was showing, too. Even when Jesse Lingard - on paper a better fit for the implemented system - replaced an injured Paul Pogba very early into the affair, United failed to establish anything in the realms organisation.
It became clear that there was a lack of any adherence towards the outlined approach. In all honesty, though, it almost seemed a case that no concept would provide an apt response to Liverpool's superiority on each and every front.
United appeared petrified of their opposition, struggling to deal with their fluent interchanges. It became a case that they were chasing shadows, as shown for the second Liverpool goal which came just past the 20-minute mark. Frankly, whilst Liverpool exuded there plethora of quality, it was almost too chaotic from a defensive standpoint to even pick the bones from.
To put it lightly, United were toyed with and the defence was perforated with ease having failed to close down any of their counterparts. It was beyond their ability to cope with Liverpool's sharpness in buildup, with every player bar Virgil van Dijk getting in on the act before Sadio Mane's world-class blind pass found Salah - again getting the better of Dalot - who doubled Liverpool's advantage.
You get the feeling that Gary Neville would have gone a slight bit further than describing those in a United shirt as a "waste of space" if he wasn't on commentary duty.
The dysfunctionality was plain to see. United's back-up left-back seemed to have been rendered too poor to start ahead of two right-backs, with heavily-criticised Aaron Wan-Bissaka getting his share of time on the left flank (despite no experience) following Dalot's woes in containing Salah. Meanwhile, Phil Jones, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard all featured - all of whom are out of contract in the coming months.
To United's relief after a further accumulation of errors, Diaz was ruled offside having found the net for a third Liverpool goal. In the meantime, their standout moment in the first-half was... a corner.
A solitary corner.
The ball was hardly ever kept by United, let alone there being any scope for creation. From Liverpool's point-of-view, it was like a playground kickabout. Every single United player was guilty of just ambling around. Routine 50/50s were essentially anything but, with Liverpool first to every ball and United not driven enough to do anything about it.
There was a slight inroad for United early into the second-half as some lethargy set in for Liverpool - much to Jurgen Klopp's incensement. However, after replacing Jones at the juncture, a lively Jadon Sancho was forced to run a solo-show, largely unsupported by his team-mates, who largely reciprocated Liverpool's uncharacteristic stagnation.
There were a few encouraging moments of interplay between Sancho and Lingard, but thoughtlessness, indecision and simply inferior quality was prevalent inside the final-third. Anthony Elanga and Marcus Rashford both squandered good shooting opportunities.
Liverpool, by contrast, were punishing. They showed their mettle to overcome the momentary blip after the break, continuing to plug away amidst adversity. If there was any doubt as to the outcome (highly unlikely), that was eradicated as Mane became the third and final member of Liverpool's front-three to make their mark on the scoresheet.
Lindelof's pass out to compatriot Elanga was high-risk, with Andy Robertson embodying his side's worthier endeavour as he beat an unaware Elanga to the ball. From there, it was a further compilation of recurring mishaps for United.
With Dalot out of position and uncovered for, it was routine for Diaz to pick his pass into the box. Mane's ultimate goal was preventable but Maguire was easily outdone by the forward's dynamism and caught out by his decision to hang back on the edge of the box, allowing a free attempt to calmly slot past David de Gea - helpless once more.
For the first time in a Premier League season against the same side, United had conceded eight goals. There wasn't long to dwell on that, though; it was quickly made nine by Salah, making it a 9-0 aggregate scoreline in Liverpool's favour across the season. United have only once suffered a larger aggregate defeat in a league season - that being in the 1800s.
Maguire was, again, responsible for some culprit defending but, this time, in addition to a wayward pass which saw late substitute Hannibal stand no chance of retaining possession from against Robertson's charge.
Much like for Norwich's first goal at the weekend, Dalot's attempted tackle in the buildup was frail, allowing Diogo Jota to prevail. Jota produced a slide-rule pass into Salah, who bundled the ball over De Gea with aid of a deflection off Wan-Bissaka. But, the pass should never have been allowed to be completed. However, for some inexplicable reason, Maguire decided to take a step which engineered an almighty, gaping pore for the ball to be played into.
Ultimately, it quickly became another implosion and yet another result to file under a growing list of humiliating defeats this season. United's points tally is now the lowest they have ever incurred after 33 matches in a Premier League season.
The team is visibly in tatters, as Rangnick admitted when suggesting that "there could be six, seven, eight, maybe 10 new players" come the start of next season. He also emphasised, "There will be a rebuild for sure, that was obvious in the first three or four weeks for me."
Those aren't reactionary utterances, either. Prior to the fixture, he declared, "We need to improve the squad in all areas."
The comments are, of course, more than justified. Whilst it took 19 year-old Hannibal to be introduced for instillment of some vigour, general shortcomings were shown in that, despite only having 28% possession, United lost the ball a mere seven times less than Liverpool. The pass completion rate was a measly 73% comparative to Liverpool's 91% success rate, whilst Allison had more touches than United's central midfield.
Unfortunately, such distinctive subservience comes as no surprise. In the telling words of Keane post-match, "There was anger, now it's just sadness."
"It's not the club I played for."
And, the chances are, it won't be the same entity for some time. Rangnick, amidst his rightful insistence as to the necessity of a rebuild, judged that Liverpool are "six years ahead" of United.
It is going to be a long process - by no means an instantaneous turnaround. Because, right now, Manchester United are nothing but a laughing stock.
From top to bottom, the club is broken.
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