Louis van Gaal’s first season at Bayern Munich began with a string of poor performances that left his future in doubt as they won just five of their first 13 league games.
Then, quite abruptly, at the end of November, they beat Hannover 3-0 at the beginning of a run of nine straight Bundesliga wins.
Ten days later, they beat Juventus 4-0. By the end of the season, they had not merely won the double of the Bundesliga and German Cup but had reached the Uefa Champions League final. There was no warning of the upswing in form; everything just suddenly clicked.
It would be premature to suggest Manchester United have undergone a similar process in the past two weeks, but the difference between their performances in the 3-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur and this victory and what had gone before is profound. The direct result is that United are cemented in fourth, five points clear of Liverpool in fifth, but if United have suddenly assimilated the Van Gaal philosophy, the long-term effects could be far more significant.
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Van Gaal, typically, was less than effusive in his praise for his side, frustrated by how the second-half performance failed to live up to the first.
“The first half was very good,” he said. “I knew Liverpool would press us and they did, but we played them off the pitch in the first half and scored a fantastic goal. We gave nothing away, so it was a superb first half. Then I come in the dressing room and give all my complements because I’m so happy I can give compliments again.
“In the second half everything changed because of the red card, and we were not any more playing like a team: unnecessary running with the ball, and when we didn’t have the ball we didn’t press the opponent, so that was not so good. But nevertheless we didn’t give many chances away.”
Last week’s win was widely hailed as United’s best performance of the season, but the caveat was that it was against Tottenham, who have looked increasingly weary of late and who remain prone to self-destructive patches of flatness.
Van Gaal has been more willing to embrace pragmatism in the past year, but here he sent out the same side and had them play with a similar sense of calm authority. For quarter of an hour, Liverpool could barely get the ball as United played with a precision and sense of purpose that was typified by the opening goal, Ander Herrera sliding Juan Mata in to score with a calm finish.
There have been spells this season when it seemed Van Gaal did not entirely trust either Herrera or Mata, but both were excellent here. Herrera was lively, distributing intelligently and snapping into tackles – which ultimately brought the red card for Steven Gerrard as he reacted to a firm challenge with a stamp.
Mata too, working the right flank, always looking to make diagonal runs behind the defence, was superb. His second goal was exquisite as he exchanged passes with Angel Di Maria, running on to a chip over the defence to score with a falling volley.
There were nerves towards the end and probably more anxiety than there should have been against 10 men – all the more so after Wayne Rooney continued his drought at Anfield by missing an injury-time penalty – but the outlook still seems far more positive now than it was two weeks ago.
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