It might only be just a meaningless friendly, but a result is a result. Manchester United thrashed arch-rivals Liverpool, in a money grab, whoops, uhm, I mean exhibition match, in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday. It’s the first preseason match for both teams in 2022-23 and a winning debut for new United manager Erik ten Hag.
While this match doesn’t count, for anything at all, you would still rather win these games and lose them, and you would obviously rather win handily than win narrowly, so hey, if you’re a MUFC supporter, just take the W and move on.
Well there you have it, it’s all totally settled, right now for the upcoming season:
United are gonna win the treble, and beat Liverpool twice in the league, 27-0 on aggregate @stueyissickofit @gonzalodelriov #MUNLIV https://t.co/WS1W3r8afnโ Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) July 12, 2022
At the very least, it’s a welcome respite from the Cristiano Ronaldo holdout/transfer saga. As for the match itself, United were up 3-0 by just a little over a half hour in, thanks to goals from Jadon Sancho (which would stand up as the game winner, at 12′), Fred at 30′ (how unlikely!) and Anthony Martial (hate to say this about a striker, but again how unlikely!) at 33′.
Youngster Facundo Pellistri made the most of a rare opportunity, netting at 76′ to complete the scoring.
Manchester United fans seeing the scores:#MUNLIV pic.twitter.com/XKTFrqL8Ds
โ ???? ?? (@demiisjobless) July 12, 2022
It’s obviously important to note that Jurgen Klopp fielded a much less experienced side than Ten Hag in this one, waiting until the final 30 minutes to put on some of his major stars, including Virgil van Dijk,ย Thiago,ย Mohamed Salah and the summer splash signing, then ยฃ85 million striker Darwin Nunez.
Ten Hag fielded a stronger team, and the final score line reflected that. Goals from Fred don’t happen too often, so let’s take a look at that scoring strike below:
Fred makes this look do easy. Pure class ???#MUNLIV #PreSeason2022 #MUFC pic.twitter.com/QSu6flBujC
โ RioF (@F79Rio) July 12, 2022
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager ofย The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net)ย andย author of โTransatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,โ as well asย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.โ
He has regularly appeared inย WGN,ย Sports Illustratedย and theย Chicago Tribune,ย and heย co-hosts theย After Extra Time podcast, part ofย Edge of the Crowd Network.ย Follow him and the website onย Twitterย andย Instagram.
