How Manchester United held Liverpool to draw on goals by Kobbie Mainoo, Bruno Fernandes

Quansah has been a revelation for Liverpool this season.

The 21-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan at League One side Bristol Rovers. Few expected him to be thrust into the limelight this season, but every test he has faced he has passed with flying colours.

That was until he misjudged a simple square pass to Virgil van Dijk. Fernandes capitalised and hit a first-time shot that flew past Kelleher and levelled the scores with United’s first shot of the game.

Any chance of a controlled and composed performance from either side went out the window when Alejandro Garnacho rounded Kelleher to score within the first 100 seconds.

The ‘goal’ was ruled out for offside, but the message was clear: we were going to get more of the counter-attacking silliness from the 4-3 on March 17.

Ten Hag’s plan appeared to centre around catching Liverpool cold and scoring early… except Liverpool held their nerve and eventually got the game’s opener in the 23rd minute. United’s reaction to being a goal behind? More chaos.

A back four of Diogo Dalot, Willy Kambwala, Harry Maguire and Wan-Bissaka made for United’s 26th different defensive configuration this season.

Darwin Nunez bullied Wan-Bissaka a little ahead of the penalty spot to get the flick-on assist for Luis Diaz’s finish. A look at the image above will show you, Nunez’s header was in an area multiple teams target when playing United.

Sharing defensive stats with Sheffield United and Luton Town is not what any United fan envisioned at the start of the season. Ten Hag will point to injuries affecting his side’s ability to play at their maximum. Critics will ask why it’s so hard for the United manager to muster anything better than this.

Last summer, Ten Hag wanted United to be the best transitional team in the world. The concept made sense considering the profile of United’s attackers. “We really looked into the history of Manchester United and we looked also into the qualities of our players,” said Ten Hag. “And then you can say, so what do we want to be? That is, we want to be the best transition team in the world. We want to surprise.”

However, to be the best transitional team in the world, you also need to know how to defend these situations — it’s not only about being gung-ho and attacking the space, especially when you are facing a Liverpool side who thrive in this type of game.

Manchester United fans on our discussion page have taken a rather positive outlook on today's result...

• Jake S: You take away a silly penalty today and two very dubious penalties on Thursday, we should be looking at six points versus Chelsea and Liverpool in the space of four days.
• Rob W: I watch football to be entertained. This has been a bloody entertaining week. Stupid penalties, late drama, lost leads, lost points, superb goals, magical passes, hare-brained s*** happening everywhere. Great fun, even if United didn't take the points they should have. And putting a dent in Liverpool's title ambitions is a result.

While others have singled out a specific youngster who made just his second career Premier League start today for praise...

• Nathan M: I’d like to formally establish the Willy Kambwala fan club. All are welcome.
• Mahesh K: Kambwala, the great positive from this game!

Erik ten Hag has also spoken to the BBC after the match: "Very mixed emotions. On one side I am disappointed that we have dropped seven points in one week after being in winning positions, but we have to blame ourselves for making stupid mistakes.

"On the other side I am very proud. You see how we are improving and the potential of this squad is amazing.

"In decisive areas we were losing battles, especially with young players we were not confident to win them. We encouraged in the second half to do better and they stepped up."

On Willy Kambwala: "He has been training a while with us and progressing well. The next generation need to step in and he is doing brilliant. The challenge for him is doing it consistently. Great opportunity for him and we have other options like bringing Casemiro in at centre-half, but today he deserved it and he showed it on the pitch."

On United's league position in sixth place: "I don't know. We will keep fighting and we have to do the same and learn from the moments. Brentford was our worst performance, we didn't deserve to win there."

Jurgen Klopp says he's not watching the matches of Liverpool's fellow title contenders, but he is aware that Arsenal's final away game this season comes at Old Trafford: "Arsenal is a good football team and if (United) play like today, Arsenal will win that game, I'm 100 per cent sure. I'm really sorry to say that but this is a matter of fact. We should've won both games and didn't. That's our fault."

Virgil van Dijk spoke to the BBC after the match: "It feels like a loss, it is our fault again. We had so many chances and we should finish the game off.

"Unfortunately the individual mistake that happened with the equaliser and we had so much time to put it right, but we were in a rush.

"Still, after being 2-1 down we created so much."

On missed chances in the first half: "We should have been 2-0 up at least, but in football unfortunately if these things don't happen you give them the feeling they could come back and it happened."

On whether Jarrell Quansah was affected by his mistake: "He shouldn't. Mistakes happen in football. Everyone who has a career in football makes mistakes, you can only learn from it."

Manchester United travel to Bournemouth for the 5.30pm BST kick-off next Saturday.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are back in action on Thursday, facing Italian side Atalanta in their Europa League quarter-final first leg at Anfield.

They then host Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday.

Liverpool have now scored in 27 straight away matches in all competitions, totalling 63 goals during that time.

If they score in their next away match, at Atalanta in the Europa League on April 18, they will equal the best run of scoring in away games in club history.

Andre Onana was a busy man during the first half of Manchester United’s Premier League match against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon as visitors Liverpool registered 15 shots on the Cameroon international’s goal during a one-sided first half at Old Trafford.

Television replays at one point showed Onana appearing to put Vaseline on his gloves during a break in play, although when approached by The Athletic, those close to Onana insisted it wasn’t and was instead a substance designed specifically to improve grip.

But why would players do that? Check out our explainer below.

From Fernandes' stunning equaliser from midfield, to Liverpool's many wasted chances, our team of writers have unpacked the big talking points from this match.

Follow the link below to check out their breakdown!

No player has provided more assists for Premier League clubs in all competitions this season than Darwin Núñez (13).

His assist for Luis Díaz’s opener was his 50th goal involvement in his Liverpool career in all competitions (33 goals, 17 assists).

More from Klopp's discussion with Sky Sports after the match: "I think the Dom Szoboszlai chance was an incredible save from Onana. The other ones, we were in a bit of a rush – I’d have loved us to take an extra touch. You always have to take different things from the game. I know the outside world will get nervous but we have to be calm – it’s going to be full of life, excitement and desire. The goals we have scored have got us where we are. We need to build on that. We’ll deal with that in the right way.

"I’m not over the moon but it’s OK. You take what you get. If we were more clinical then we could’ve won here. I'm not angry at all with the boys but in the game I'm not just going to let things happen. We dropped too deep. There were plenty of situations where we could have defended the ball. You need to be proactive.

"The team that wins the league deserves it – that means it’s really difficult. We are in that race. And I’m fine with it."