English football’s two most successful clubs and fiercest rivals met in South Carolina – with Liverpool coming out on top against Manchester United.
Despite playing one game fewer in pre-season than Erik ten Hag’s United, Arne Slot’s Liverpool dominated at the Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, in front of a capacity crowd of 77,559.
Goals from Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas gave Liverpool a deserved win over United, who struggled to match their rivals and suffered a chastening defeat ahead of the Community Shield against Manchester City on Saturday.
Here are five talking points from the last US tour games for both teams, who flew back home straight after the game.
United suspect at the back
It says everything about United’s paucity of defensive options, following the injury to £59million signing Leny Yoro in the tour opener against Arsenal, which will keep him out for three months, that Ten Hag was forced to leave Harry Maguire out of the Liverpool game as a precaution. Without Yoro, Ten Hag is down to three centre-backs in Maguire, Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelof, and cannot afford to lose any of them to injury.
Liverpool raced to a 2-0 lead by half-time, with slack defending from United aiding their arch rivals with both goals. It does not help Ten Hag that two of his makeshift back four – Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka – are likely to leave for the right fee, while 17-year-old left-back Harry Amass, playing in the absence of Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot, was up against a stern test in Mo Salah.
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