Roy Keane was concerned by Manchester United’s starting lineup. “The closer we get to kick-off the more worried I am,” the club’s former captain admitted when commenting on an XI featuring two left-backs, missing its best attacking player and with a midfield trio unlikely to survive beyond the summer.

United are an upper mid-table side with a Real Madrid wage bill. Their players aren’t any better than those at Wolves and they’ve won a game more than Sheffield United, but the name ‘Manchester United’ means those picked to play are expected to at least challenge a club like arch rivals Liverpool, the current world champions. For large spells of the game, they did.

With all things considered, should Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have been expected to do better than the 2-0 defeat on Sunday?

What Manchester United needed to plan for

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s list of problems to solve before the match on Sunday included:

How to beat a team which had won 30 of its previous 31 league matches

How to score against a defence which hadn’t conceded in six games

How to achieve this with a team second best in every position - and without key individuals

How to defend against specific threats and offer counter-attacking potential

How to prevent Trent Alexander-Arnold's creative influence and stop Andy Robertson causing overloads

United took a point from their last match against Liverpool by setting up in a 3-4-1-2, deploying two wing-backs to push high on opposition full-backs and limit their creative capacity, absorb pressure and hit them on the break. That same plan couldn't be relied upon to work again, especially considering the tactical changes Jurgen Klopp enacted after that 1-1 draw, having his players regularly rotate positions to avoid being marked out of the game as United did.