Matthijs de Ligt played the full 90 minutes at Anfield as Manchester United picked up a historic win over Liverpool.
This Sunday’s 2-1 win over Liverpool was the first time since 2016 that Manchester United have gone to Merseyside and picked up a Premier League win at Anfield.
Harry Maguire was United’s hero by scoring the winner in the dying minutes, while Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring for the Red Devils inside the first two minutes.
But Ruben Amorim will be equally proud of his back five, who defended superbly in a hostile environment. Summer signing Senne Lammens was superb on just his second United display, and he was given great protection by Matthijs de Ligt and Co. in front of him.
Matthijs de Ligt explains Man Utd plan to exploit Liverpool
Amorim made some eye-catching changes to his lineup to face Liverpool, with an in-form Benjamin Sesko dropped to the bench in favour of Matheus Cunha.
A mobile front three that also included Mbeumo and Mason Mount proved very difficult for Liverpool to handle, and it all plays into Amorim’s tactical gameplan.
Speaking to ViaPlay after the full-time whistle, De Ligt explained that United set out to target Liverpool’s full-backs.
“We knew that Liverpool have weaknesses. And that’s their full-backs.”
The Dutch defender added: “This season we are showing that we can play really well. We just needed to convert our chances in other games. Today we did that straight away.”
Liverpool made changes to their full-backs over the summer, and it was Conor Bradley and Milos Kerkez who started at Anfield. It was clear that United’s attacking setup caused confusion among the Liverpool defence with Virgil van Dijk unsure when to cover for Kerkez on the left.
Ruben Amorim deserves praise for Liverpool win
Over the international break, Sir Jim Ratcliffe publicly backed Amorim and insisted he deserves three years in charge to turn things around.
Patience among supporters was running out after an underwhelming start to the season, but by winning at Anfield, Amorim has done what many of his predecessors failed to.
Tactically, United were set up brilliantly and could have easily taken a bigger lead into half-time.
READ MORE: Five biggest winners and two losers as Man United beat Liverpool 2-1
Defensively, Amorim was able to keep Liverpool’s expensive attack quiet, and the mentality to score a winner after being pegged back to 1-1 shows a huge change behind the scenes.
The wait for back-to-back wins under Amorim is now over and now the focus will be fully on the Brighton match.
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
