The Liverpool (and Pogba) v Manchester United Humdinger...

"God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies." - Voltaire

In some parts, it could be referred to as 'Household wickedness'. The Greeks may have described it as a Trojan horse.

It was an individual  performance that can be likened to: 1. The hapless Thompson & Thomson Tin-Tin twins. 2. Fackler in the 'Police Academy' series or 3. Martin Short in 'Pure Luck' (one for the cinephiles). When you spend £89m on a product/talent, you expect it to be mostly excellent even if you make slim allowances for off days. But then there are 'off days' and there are 'just-don't-bother-coming' days. The performance I'm trying to describe falls firmly in the latter category.

Paul Labile Pogba has been solid to excellent for United since his rebirth. He has the skill, technique persona and presence to make a legendary success out of his career at Old Trafford. The noted downsides to his game had been his wayward, even fantastic, shooting and his over-complication of the simple things (Why cross directly when you can rabona? Why release the ball immediately when you can dribble 2 midfielders first? Passes look better when distributed via the outer foot). His social media savoir-faire (check out his new twitter emoji) and enthusiasm, while popular with millennials, irritates several others. 

But these are issues that can be fixed over the course of his career. They are hinged more on decision-making rather than a deficiency of talent. And that's a great comfort. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he's still 23 years young and this is actually his first full season in the first team. Basically, he needs to be given time. 

None of this however justifies his performance in the club's emotionally biggest match in the 2016/17 season. Missed a sitter. After his stray pass intended for Mhkitaryan in the early minutes, things only went downhill therefrom. Asides awful pass after awful pass, the Pog over-confidently assumed that he would be given the freedom of the midfield city as other, putting it quite frankly, lesser opposition have offered over the last couple of games. But credit to the Scousers, they are a different kind of animal in closing midfield opposition - As soon as Pogba touched the ball, 2 rottweilers usually led by Emre Can, came attacking and with regular and alarming success, chewed him to pieces and ran away with the ball. Indeed 'twas often a match up between Rottweilers v a Pug. Only one winner. Conventional wisdom would suggest that the pragmatic alternative was to release the ball early to the (temporarily) free front man so a Martial, for instance, could adequately terrorise the rookie full-back. But Pogba failed to realise this time and time again and was stripped off the ball just as often.

The handball leading to the penalty was downright ridiculous as he had already lost his man from the set-piece (It wasn't going to be the last time either) and his hand-raise was a feeble attempt to work himself into a vantage position to salvage his initial positional error. In his 94 minutes on pitch, he could as well have been playing for the opposition. The earlier Pogba comprehends that the EPL is a particularly unforgiving arena, the better it would be for all stakeholders.

Another unravelling and slightly worrisome trend is the fact that Pogba doesn't show up for the biggest games. For both club and country. France in the World Cup Quarters and the Euro finals. Juve in the UCL finals and this season against Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, City and both games against Liverpool. For a player of his capabilities, he really should be taking such games by the scruff of the neck and marking indelible prints. If it's any consolation, the last United player who endured such criticism earlier in his career has become a 4-time Balon D'or winner. He was also as vain. So Pogba must surely be threading a good path, yes? Anyway...

*Neuralyses THAT performance from my memory bank* ...

As to the rest of the game, aha, it was a typical 'hammer & tongs' passionate performance you would expect in a fixture of this kind. While moderate in the quality department, it was a cliff hanger emotion-wise and often went 0 to a 100 real quick. 

De Gea, as usual, kept us in the game even as Jones and Rojo, while putting up a decent performance, were often exposed by the Liverpool attack. Rojo, in particular, played like he was still shaking off the lethargy of his inactivity. Darmian was Darmian. Tony Atlas Valencia, God bless him, for the first time in recent memory, couldn't muscle his way regularly past the opposition's left-side. Things however improved when the game opened up in the 2nd half when we were chasing the game and he nabbed an assist for his efforts.

The midfield was an area of worry all through the game. That 1st guy aside, the usually dependable Carrick was constantly engulfed by a neon-green swarm whenever he had the ball and was pulled off at half time. It was a bold decision even if one could see why. But it is this sort of games that highlight why a younger more mobile replacement should be top priority for this team. Carrick will do his thing in games where the opposition is content to let United have the ball but where the pressing is as intense as Liverpool offer, he can look every day of his 36 years. Recall the Stadio Olympico and Wembley UCL finals against Barca? And those were 6-8 years ago. Herrera was uncharacteristically also poor in possession and distribution but this was enforced by Liverpool, all credit to them. That yellow card? Priceless. 

Attackers, Martial started like a house on fire but faded as the game progressed. One continuing head-scratcher for me was how tight the Liverpool full backs (with the assistance of their wingers) stuck with our wide men while their wide men on the other hand, had ample time and space to weave into our '18 box. The Merseyside team had considerably more touches in our box than we did in theirs. Mikki and Martial were constantly double and triple teamed anytime they got the ball in the juicy wide areas and I kept wondering why we couldn't replicate that defensive tactic when Liverpool attacked...

Mikki is fast becoming a renaissance man capable of doing a job in several positions when the team has to go gung ho. His finishing has been appalling of late and we do need other goal contributors outside that 6'5 tower of greatness. 

Rooney replaced Carrick at half time and didn't do as badly as I thought he would. That's a huge compliment. He still has the 1st touch of a rapist and Ms. Pace has long deserted him. While he was contributed in the build up to the goal, he had the opportunity to make himself an even greater hero by sending a through pass to (was it Mata, Mikki or Valencia?) a player in the box in the 93rd minute but instead saw the 250-against-Liverpool headlines and tried to dribble past the entire back line to shoot...smh. A mad ref (which could be anyone of them really) could have also had him sent off for the Milner tackle.

Fellaini has signed a extended his contract with the club for a year (no doubt so we can obtain some value when we sell him off in the summer) and came in to do what Fellaini does. In the words of his manager, "The people need to know what Maroune Fellaini is great at and what he is not good at. Maroune is very good in some aspects." It's very simple actually - He's great at being tall and mildly aggressive and he's not good at football. Direct entry aka Route one football when chasing a game is an aspect he's very good at. There, decoded that for you.

The current prince of Manchester spent 83 minutes surveying his empire while liaising with the commoners and serfs on the goings-on. And when he was ready, he did what he had done 13 previous times in 20 league games. At times, the Nordic prince seemed to be involved in an intensely competitive mannequin challenge but I suspected and predicted that he would come through before 90 minutes. Invaluable player.

So was it a point won or 2 points dropped? For me, it was the former. While impressed with Liverpool's performance, I was even more heartened by ours. The team has developed some character and doesn't know when it's beaten. Mourinho made brave if sometimes questionable substitutions (Rooney and Fellaini) but both players combined in the lead up to the goal. You can't fault that. The 2nd half offered a much improved performance than the 1st and with a bit of luck, we could have run away with a famous victory. Liverpool also had its own chances though so I reckon the draw was a fair result.

All is not lost. 2 points behind 5th placed slumping City (and they play Spurs next...heh, heh, heh...) and 4 points behind 4th placed Arsenal. We play Stoke on Saturday and this should be considered a very winnable game even at the Brittania.

The holidays are over. Time to roll up our sleeves.

In other news... 

* Pep Guardiola is a good manager but having Lionel Messi, and a peak Xavi and Iniesta at your disposal will add a huge gloss to your abilities. And the EPL is not a mono-league. You doze, you get knocked out. Welcome to Ingerlund, Pep...

*  A 40-match unbeaten run is the new Spanish all-matches unbeaten record but it was brought to a screeching if expected halt against Sevilla. 2-1 it ended. In the most Sergio Ramos-esque kind of way. Ramos was also a former Sevilla player. Sevilla, under Sampaoli have looked the best equipped team in Spain to give Real Madrid problems. The Euro Super Cup was a dreadful mistake, the Copa Del Rey 1st leg had some questionable decisions and the 3-3 return leg was also careless. Regardless, Los Blancos enjoyed a magnificent run and should still be the favourites for the title at least.

*  Fiorentina inflicted the equivalent of a puppy bite to Juventus' 5th straight title bid.

* R.I.P Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka.