A look at how the national media viewed things as Liverpool lose 3-2 to Manchester United at Old Trafford
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 3: Arne Slot manager / head coach of Liverpool reacts during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on May 3, 2026 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
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Liverpool slipped to an 11th Premier League defeat of the season with a 3-2 loss at Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.
After United have taken a two-goal lead into the half-time interval, through Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, the visitors responded through Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo.
However, it was Kobbie Mainoo who steered home the winning goal to take the Red Devils six points clear of a Liverpool side who remain one place below them in fourth.
The ECHO, as always, was at the game to run the rule over proceedings. You can find our exhaustive match-day coverage here: Player ratings, post-match analysis, big-game verdict, our dedicated live blog and the reactions of Arne Slot and Michael Carrick.
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Our colleagues from the national media were also on hand to give their own considered takes. Here's what they made of the latest Liverpool loss.
Writing in The Times, Paul Joyce reflects: "This was an assignment demanding a backs-against-the-wall display, to dig in and grow into proceedings.
"Instead, Slot lamented his players 'not picking up the second balls' in those early passages when the chance to set the tone was squandered. It was enough to wonder just what is said in the moments before kick-off and, more importantly, whether anyone is actually listening.
"Even when they were invited back into the game by United’s mistakes, there was not the conviction from. Liverpool that they would then go on and make the most of the momentum that had belatedly been mustered.
"The lack of options available to Slot clearly played a part but, instead, the tricks and flicks started again — a surefire sign of a team who think they are better than they actually are.
"Seven times in the league (eight overall), Liverpool have fallen behind, restored parity and then lost. That is why their season remains on the brink.
"As a result, there is enough cause to wonder whether Salah’s comments merely scratched at the surface of the problems facing his soon-to-be former club.
"When eras end, new leaders must step forward. Notwithstanding those missing, there is also a lack of quality. In defence, in midfield and in attacking areas."
On the pages of The Telegraph, Dominic King writes: "Don’t be fooled. The fightback made the game dramatic and, for a period, distorted the narrative but banish the idea that Liverpool were unlucky.
"If you wanted, you could easily convince yourself that might be the case. Look at all those injuries, for starters, the latest of which was the groin strain to Alexander Isak that left Arne Slot without nine experienced players for the trip to Old Trafford.
"That conclusion, though, ignores the fact that Liverpool’s starting line-up for this contest cost £430.2m to assemble – Manchester United’s, in comparison, was £481.2m – and the 10 outfield players had all won a league title during their careers. This was no team of novices.
"Why, then, do they continue to play as if they are? A second-half fightback, when they pulled back two goals in nine minutes, was fun to watch but Liverpool had sown the seeds for the defeat with a start that was anaemic as their shirts, the pale hue a fitting shade for what appeared to be surrender."
Ian Ladyman, for the Daily Mail, writes: "Maybe it was sweeter for Manchester United to win this way. To give their great rivals hope and then snatch it away again. To drag them from their knees and then shove them back down in the dirt.
"Fifteen minutes in and United were two goals up and rampant. Fantasy beckoned and so did payback. Liverpool scored seven at Anfield against United back in 2023 and it has not been forgotten at either end of the East Lancs Road. After those goals from Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, Carrick’s players must have sniffed proper revenge.
"Liverpool were hopeless and hapless. Full of possession and territory but sluggish on the ball and all at sea once United’s red waves of counter-attack broke on their shores."
The Guardian's Andy Hunter wrote: "Liverpool’s recovery from two goals down may have restored some credibility to their performance, and showed there is some fight in them after all, but the unvarnished truth for Slot is that the comeback owed everything to United errors and not his team’s quality.
"Once Cody Gakpo equalised after Senne Lammens’s mistake, it seemed a question of when not if United would regain the advantage, long before Mainoo supplied the answer.
"The mitigating circumstances behind Liverpool’s 18th defeat of the season in all competitions were extensive and genuine. They started without a recognised right-back, again, with the third-choice goalkeeper, Freddie Woodman, deputising for the injured Alisson and Giorgi Mamardashvili for the second successive game and were also without a focal point in attack.
"Alexander Isak picked up a minor muscle problem in training before the game and was deemed a risk not worth taking after an injury-plagued debut season.
"On Friday, Slot spoke of the need to build an attack around the £125m striker when the summer transfer window opens. A necessary strategy, no doubt, but one that is also fraught with risk given Isak’s injury record.
"The final touch of United’s two first-half goals, scored via the backside of Mac Allister and the stomach or hand of Sesko – Slot was adamant it was the hand – heightened the sense of misfortune among the visitors.
"It is possible to be unlucky and an average team, however, as Liverpool’s first-half display demonstrated."
And the ECHO's verdict reads: "A 'new cycle', as Arne Slot put it over the weekend, is fast approaching at Liverpool. But this turbulent season is leaving many more fearful than excited for what the future holds at Anfield.
"A 3-2 defeat to historic rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford would ordinarily be no cause for a major inquest, but an 11th loss of the campaign followed the familiar pattern for a side whose Champions League hopes still hang in the balance as a result.
"Having had a full week to work on their shape and sketch out a blueprint for victory, Slot's players instead looked like deer in headlights as United snapped into challenges and won almost every individual battle.
"In possession, the Reds lacked a threat and while that was understandable given Alexander Isak, Mohamed Salah and Hugo Ekitike were all out injured, Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong spent the opening period looking overawed by both the scale of the task and the size of the occasion. That, at a club like Liverpool, is a grave offence.
"United's early exits in the domestic cups mean this season is their fewest amount of games - just 40 in total - since 1915, which undoubtedly left them the fresher of the two squads for this, particularly given the injury issues at Anfield.
"For context, United have now played 37 matches in total this term. Liverpool's 37th fixture was the 2-1 loss against Manchester City in early February. Slot does have some mitigation in that regard.
"But 11 defeats now - the worst sequence since 2015, under Brendan Rodgers - means fewer and fewer will listen to those explanations with a sympathetic ear."