Lack of Attacking Intent Cost Liverpool

Manchester united completed their first double over rivals Liverpool since 2007-2008 season beating the merseysiders 2-1 at Old Trafford. The reds only have themselves to blame for lack of attacking intent as they only started piling pressure on United in the second half.
Manager Brendan Rodgers opted to bench new signing Daniel Sturridge for the big encounter and the plan backfired.  Downing and Sterling were not able to trouble United’s defense and above all could not link up with the prolific Luis Suarez who remained a lonely figure upfront for the reds during the first period.
United dominated proceedings in the first half and did not provide Liverpool with any breathing space. On the other hand reds were not interested in helping themselves either.
The moves normally started with 3 or 4 passes in their own half, United piled pressure and eventually Liverpool ended up losing the ball or passing it to the opponents cheaply. The perfect example of that was Joe Allen who had a nightmare of a game.
Rodgers blind love for his overly favorite Allen is baffling; the midfielder was determined to provide his first assist of the season but that at the wrong end for United. Allen set up Welbeck with a silly back pass under no pressure only to see the striker fail to capitalize. Next, he did set up another volley for Cleverly with his not so clever clearance but well that was a headed one.
Liverpool perhaps respected United a little too much in the first 45 minutes knowing that they are playing away. They failed to even test David De Gea in an absolute mundane first half performance.
The only positive point for the reds in that period was that United just finished off one chance else it could have been easily 2-0 3-0 at the half time break.
The introduction of Sturridge and Henderson worked well for the reds, especially Sturridge’s brilliant understaning with Suarez helped Liverpool to fight back. In the end, Liverpool could have even snatched a point from the game but the reality is that they deserved to lose mainly because of their lack of attacking intent.
The game is about 90 minutes, and over that period United were surely the better side. For Liverpool, If they are to get back to fighting for top prizes, they should learn the lesson from this defeat and look to go out and attack the opponents, whoever they may be, from the word go or else the negative approach will inevitably backfire.