Ten Hag’s Maguire omission, Milner barking at Van Dijk and other things we saw at the derby

It was a great night for football, it was exciting, there were goals and chances, great moves and surprises….the derby match between Manchester United and Liverpool was a real spectacle. Apart from the goals and United’s surprising win, there were other interesting things which we saw during the match, like James Milner yelling at Virgil Van Dijk or Harry Maguire watching the game from the bench, or Marcus Rashford finally showing his talent.

The first big surprise came before the match, when it was announced that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire will start the match from the bench, along with Luke Shaw and Fred. And unlike other three players (even Ronaldo), Maguire on the bench is not something we’ve used to. This is a player that played the most club minutes of any player in elite world football in 2020 (5,105 minutes) and made 71 successive starts for Manchester United between August 2019-May 2021. But, for last night, he was benched and Eric Ten Hag gave pre-match reasons why he and Ronaldo are out.

No Maguire no Ronaldo, and the magic is there: United crush Liverpool in front of Casemiro

"You look at the approach to this game, we have a squad, a lot of games to cover, and we thought for this game it was best to make these changes. It doesn't mean anything for the future. Varane is a really experienced player, he's won everything in his career and will bring the communication in the back four, but that's also what Harry does. Liverpool are a great team in and out of possession, you need to press them, and you have to do that out of a block, so you need a lot of energy. In transition you can beat them, so that's why we've signed with Rashford, Elanga and Sancho up front” said the Dutchman.

The move paid off, but on the other side of the pich, there was no joy. The camera’s caught the moment just after the opening goal, when James Milner yelled at Virgin Van Dijk for not reacting before Jadon Sancho scored. Footage appears to show the veteran midfielder saying “you go f***ing out to him!” During the second half, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, who was watching the game as part of the Sky Sports crew reported that Milner and Van Dijk were screaming at each other (again).

“There's obviously a lot of frustration out there on that pitch, and rightly so. Milner was having a go at him after the first goal and they're still going at it now. What is going on with Liverpool? That is embarrassing. Liverpool just haven’t been committed enough. We questioned United at Brentford, we should be questioning Liverpool for exactly the same things here tonight" said Carragher during the game.

The mood inside Liverpool dressing room is a gloomy one at the moment due to a series of bad results and a lot of injured players, especially in midfield.

“We started off slow, of course we’re frustrated, we’re a team who want to win games but right now that’s not happening. But we’ve got to stick together, we’re a tight unit, things need to be said and we need to stick together. Things will get better and I do believe that but it’s not been the start we wanted, we’re far behind we want to be” said Andy Robertson after the game.