Zlatan Ibrahimovic rescues unconvincing Manchester United after Paul Pogba nearly hands Liverpool victory

  Though Manchester United have not lost at home to their oldest enemy in the three years since, here was evidence that something of the old side are back. It was not champion class from United, who could ill afford the two dropped points, but they don’t know they’re beaten, once more. The noise which rolled through this place when Zlatan Ibrahimovic ducked down into his 84th minute headed equaliser was as monumental as anything we’ve heard since the days when they were accustomed to collecting trophies.
By the end Jurgn Klopp was shaping up to Jose Mourinho in the technical area over his team’s gamesmanship and refusing to accept the hand the Portuguese eventually offered him. The world of Moyes it was not. Yet when the dust has settled on a game which ignited at times and found moments of quality Liverpool may settle for what they took because United had more of the chances.  Those wise heads at Old Trafford – the ones who understand what serial success looks like - will tell you that risks come attached when you start believing your own publicity, as Paul Pogba apparently does. He has just become the first Premier League player to possess his own emoji, complete with yellow flecks. The first half advertising hoardings promoted #pogba. And the recipient of this confection duly contributed substantially to his side’s struggle for parity. It was another of those afternoons for him which suggested he is not the finished article yet – conceding a naïve penalty, missing a gilt-edged chance and struggling to find his way. Pogba would have been the story had not Ibrahimovic – an affirmed Old Trafford folk hero – scored his 19th goal in 33 appearances.  Milner converted the penalty after Pogba's handball (Getty) Mourinho was so sensitive about how limited his side’s ambition had been when the teams met at Anfield that he appeared out of a side door after the press conference to correct a statistic and buoyed by their nine successive wins United certainly were a different proposition. It was not the kind of well-oiled machine which that kind of runs suggests - United were clunky and disorganised at times in the first half - but they were the ones who created the chances. After overcoming Liverpool’s superior start, in which Divock Origi’s strength in possession suggested dangers up ahead, United recovered poise and extracted by far the better chances. This might not be the kind of season Simon Mignolet will always want to remember but he saved his side twice, clawing away a low, precise Ibrahimovic free kick for which he was unsighted and racing out to create a barrier when Henrikh Mkhitaryan was sent racing through. But it was Pogba whose interventions dictated the course of the first half. He, too, raced beyond the Liverpool defence, when Ander Herrera won a header which was collected and sent through, with slide rule quality by Mkhitaryan. But as Old Trafford held a collective breath, he poked the ball to Simon Mignolet’s right and several inches wide of the post.  Pogba looked to the heavens and that moment certainly always looked like it could be significant against a Liverpool who had ideas and chances in them. They looked full of belief, not least 18-year-old full debutante Trent Alexander-Arnold, who took down a 30-yard cross field as with his left foot and immediately shot with his right, before the half hour. Origi, Roberto Firmino and, to a lesser extent, Adam Lallana, provided intensity of a kind United have not experienced on this run and Firmino had come close to stealing from Phil Jones in the area when calamity hour arrived for Pogba. Leaping for a dropping ball, arms outstretched, from a corner with Dejan Lovren just beyond the half hour, he neglected to watch the flight of the ball which dropped onto his left hand. A certain penalty, which the consummate professional James Milner despatched to David de Gea’s right. Neither manager looked entirely happy; Mourinho’s players had been profligate and Jurgen Klopp’s the most prone to the attacking thrusts. Wayne Rooney’s search to become Manchester United’s all-time leading goalscorer persuaded the Portuguese to employ him immediately after the interval. Klopp waited barely any longer to deploy Philippe Coutinho, who needed seconds to deliver a cushioned reverse pass which Firmino struck at, to no avail.  Liverpool had a chance to put the game beyond doubt on 75 minutes when a fast counter attack saw Firmino away down the right, crossing for Georginio Wijnaldum, whose unchallenged headed chance came at a comfortable height, only for him to send it over. Rooney played a big part in the equaliser, delivering a sumptuous cross which had been recycled back in by Antonio Valencia when Ibrahimovic levered his head onto it. By the end, United were powering on for a winner. It was Herrera’s grab at Firmino’s jersey to prevent a counter thrust which infuriated Klopp. That’s what Mourinho has instilled here.