Like a lot of Liverpool fans, Jason McAteer didn’t quite know what to make of last month’s rout of Manchester United. He obviously enjoyed the one-sided nature of the 3-0 victory, and it felt significant too.
After all, Liverpool had dominated three games against United last season and failed to win one, with former manager Jurgen Klopp subsequently admitting that the shock FA Cup quarter-final loss at Old Trafford felt like a “catastrophe” from which his players never really recovered. So, such a dominant defeat of United looked like a serious statement of intent by Slot’s Liverpool – but it was an easy win. Too easy, in fact.
“I thought it would have been a good test of Slot’s management and a good barometer to see where Liverpool were at that time of the season,” former Reds midfielder McAteer told Gambling Zone. “But I come away from the game and asked myself, ‘Are Liverpool really good or are Manchester United really bad?'”
It was arguably a bit of both. It’s certainly clear at this stage to everyone bar INEOS that Erik ten Hag’s team are terrible and in dire need of yet another new manager, while Liverpool are top of the Premier League table, having accumulated 18 points from a possible 21.
Slot has also overseen nine wins in his first 10 games in all competitions – making this the best start by any manager in Liverpool’s history. But are Liverpool “really good”? Or just beneficiaries of a seriously soft set of fixtures against substandard opposition? We’re about to find out…