Liverpool player ratings, winners and losers vs Man Utd as Cody Gakpo better but 5 struggle

ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL // Liverpool fell to a fourth successive defeat in all competitions, losing to Manchester United at home for the first time in almost a decade.

Bryan Mbuemo opened the scoring in controversial circumstances after little more than a minute — Alexis Mac Allister was down with a head injury and play should have been stopped — and while Cody Gakpo hit the woodwork three times, Liverpool couldn't ever fully get back on track.

Gakpo did level but Harry Maguire then popped up with a header from a Bruno Fernandes cross, leaving Liverpool boss Arne Slot scratching his head. Once again, his side was defensively porous and far from clinical in attack.

Winners

No one from a Liverpool perspective can count themselves as a winner here, though the substitutes did make an impact. For Manchester United, this was a golden opportunity to earn a first win at Anfield since January 2016, which it took.

Liverpool had more than enough chances to score but couldn't until relatively late on. Combine that lack of ruthlessness in the final third with being wide open at the back and it was never going to end well. The Reds have now lost four times on the spin for the first time since November 2014.

Losers

Defensively, Liverpool looked all at sea at times. There were simply far too many gaps. Ibrahima Konate actually did pretty well in the main, but the full-backs were shaky and Virgil van Dijk had to cover multiple areas, which he struggled with.

Arsenal's success might be built on scoring from set-pieces but Liverpool has to become more solid. If it doesn't, Mikel Arteta's men will soon establish themselves as clear title favorites.

Player ratings

Giorgi Mamardashvili (6). Made a couple of decent saves but one came from him failing to cleanly grab a simple enough cross. He didn't look particularly comfortable from set-pieces.

Conor Bradley (5). Not always comfortable defensively and didn't offer much going forward. At times, he dribbled forward as if he just expected the Manchester United defenders to move out of the way.

Ibrahima Konate (6). Played a brilliant pass into Isak that the Swede should have converted. Put in a decent enough defensive performance and cleared one flicked header off the line.

Virgil van Dijk (6). Mbuemo ran off the back of him for the opening goal and he looked all at sea as those around him flailed. Sometimes, he can deal with defending on behalf of the team, but he was too heavily relied on here. Better second half.

Milos Kerkez (5). He wasn't the only one but he didn't look defensively strong. There were huge gaps at times and he left Van Dijk with a lot to do in order to cover.

Ryan Gravenberch (6). In possession, good. Out of possession, it was too easy for Manchester United players to run off the Liverpool midfield and towards Mamardashvili's goal.

Alexis Mac Allister (5). Clattered by Van Dijk in the opening seconds of the game and wasn't really involved much after that. The balance isn't right and he isn't fully fit yet.

Dominik Szoboszlai (6). Ran and ran but couldn't offer much quality on the ball. The Hungarian smashed a cross out for a throw-in at one stage.

Mohamed Salah (5). His record in these games is excellent but he wasn't at the races, really. Salah had moments where he looked sharp and linked up with Isak, but Luke Shaw dealt with him relatively well.

Alexander Isak (5). Missed a big chance in the first half when he was clean through on goal. Arne Slot said on Friday that the striker was now fit enough to be judged, but perhaps it would be best to wait another week or two.

Cody Gakpo (7). The brightest of the Liverpool attackers in the first half, he hit the woodwork a couple of times and then repeated the trick soon after half-time. For some reason, never seems to want to pass to Kerkez on the overlap. He scored, but then missed a sitter.

Substitutes

Florian Wirtz (7). He was playing with Curtis Jones in an ultra-attacking formation but the ball was flying over his head more often than not and he is never going to win much in the air. Some good chances created and clearly has class, but needs more of a chance.

Curtis Jones (7). Injected some pace into the passing from midfield but was left doing the defensive job of three players on his own. It was a risk that didn't quite pay off.

Hugo Ekitike (7). Immediately offered something in the final third. Retrospectively, the argument can probably be made that he should have started, but he surely will against his former club, Eintracht Frankfurt, midweek.

Federico Chiesa (7). Offered some additional quality in the final third when he came on. Played his part in Liverpool getting something.

Jeremie Frimpong (7). Bright when he came on and should have got an assist when Gakpo somehow headed wide.

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