Manchester United still have plenty of work to do if they want to reach their goals this season, on the evidence of Wednesday's performance and previous results, but they were able to squeak out a win at home against Liverpool. Luis Suarez, making his season debut, looked extremely rusty and failed to make the most of his chances. On the other end, 'Chicharito' Javier Hernandez finished the one good opportunity he got, firing United to a 1-0 win.
Liverpool started in an unconventional 3-4-1-2 formation, with Victor Moses behind their heralded strikers and Jordan Henderson at right wingback. Henderson was effective going forward throughout the first half, regularly getting in behind Alexander Büttner.
The visitors struggled to find their footing in a frenetic opening 10 minutes, but settled down as the half went on and looked well in control heading into the halftime break. While the match was an exciting one going into the break, mostly because of the extremely high tempo, the 0-0 score reflected the lack of clear chances for either side. The best half-chances fell to Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, but neither was sharp enough to make anything of their opportunities in the box.
United attacked fiercely off the second half kickoff, quickly won a corner and made the most of it to instantly turn their fortunes around. Wayne Rooney delivered the corner to Hernandez, who made a brilliant run from the goal line, looping around in front of David De Gea before getting on the end of the ball and poking it into the back of the net from six yards.
The second half following that goal looked a lot like the first, though perhaps a bit more promising for United, until Liverpool made an unorthodox sub, bringing on Martin Kelly for Lucas Leiva. They had a flurry of chances just after the 70 minute mark, but came up empty. Victor Moses had a header saved by David De Gea in the 71st minute and Suarez was fouled on the edge of the area not long after. He hit a scorching free kick that got over the United wall and dipped, but hit off the crossbar.
United struck back shortly afterwards following a pair of changes, with Michael Carrick and Adnan Januzaj coming on for Hernandez and Shinji Kagawa. Rooney forced a save out of Simon Mignolet that led to a corner in the 76th minute, off which Mignolet was forced into a similar impressive stop on the United attacker.
Liverpool continued to press forward in search of an equalizer, but failed to find it as Suarez and Sturridge continued to struggle all the way through the end of the match.
Manchester United: De Gea, Büttner, Evans, Smalling, Rafael, Jones, Giggs, Kagawa (Januzaj 73'), Rooney, Nani (Welbeck 90'), Hernandez (Carrick 74')
Goals: Hernandez (46')
Liverpool: Mignolet, Sahko, Skrtel, Toure, Enrique, Lucas (Kelly 67'), Gerrard, Henderson, Moses (Sterling 82'), Sturridge, Suarez
Goals: None
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