Barney Ronay hits the nail on the head again...
"This was beyond dire – dire squared, dire football played in dire fashion by a dire selection. Imagine a bad plan, enacted badly, by someone not very good at enacting bad plans. Imagine a negative approach, applied with extreme negativity by a group of players feeling negative about the actual merits of all this negativity. Why would anyone want to keep doing this? Is Mourinho enjoying it? Even United’s starting XI was a deathly thing with seven of the 10 starting outfield players either defenders or defensive midfielders"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/dec/16/football-dire-jose-mourinho-enjoying-it
It is remarkable how the relative situations of United and Liverpool seem to have been so completely reversed. For years, a stream of not-very-good-but-expensive players (along with more than a few gems, admittedly) joined and left the Anfield ranks, along with others who never quite made the grade (at least for LFC) or never fit the playing style. Carroll, Downing, Benteke, Dicks…At the same time, the Man U machine and Sir Alex kept churning out winning team after winning team. Ferguson was certainly the (very strong) paper over the cracks for a good few years, there had certainly been structural decline at Old Trafford for a while, but the wheels seem to have come off almost completely now. FSG certainly hit more than a few bumps in their first few years of owning Liverpool, but they've learnt from their mistakes, and the on-field results are no fluke. Also making business sense... Net spend on transfers (i.e. after player sales) since 2016 is estimated at £125 million. Man City, £358m (unsurprisingly, but you can see where it's gone, in a good way). Man U...£300m (and you can't see the value for money). They seem to be regressing, not even standing still, when all the other 'big teams' are moving forward.