Manchester United need to regain Sir Alex Ferguson's squad strategy Man City and Liverpool FC have mastered

If any Manchester United fans braved Liverpool's win at Newcastle or Manchester City's stroll at Elland Road on Saturday they would have had flashbacks to a happier time.

Liverpool made five changes: Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, James Milner, Naby Keita and Diogo Jota in for Ibrahima Konate, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Mohamed Salah. The 1-0 result at St James' Park was not a fair reflection of Liverpool's dominance.

Pep Guardiola replaced Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kevin de Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva with Joao Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan, Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish. City pummelled Leeds 4-0.

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Squad management at the business end of the season is the acid test for managers and separates the good and the great. Guardiola and Klopp belong in the latter category. They preside over what appears to be significant changes that are anything but; everyone is in sync and drilled to play to the same beat.

Sir Alex Ferguson mastered that with his last great United squad in 2009. In between Champions League semi-final legs against Arsenal, United faced a lunchtime Saturday kick-off at relegation-threatened Middlesbrough. United had a 1-0 aggregate advantage from the first leg and were three points ahead at the Premier League summit, with five games to play.

Almost every vertebra from United's spine was extracted at the Riverside Stadium: Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick were rested entirely while Anderson, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez were benched.

Ben Foster, John O'Shea, Ji-sung Park, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Federico Macheda and Dimitar Berbatov came in and United won 2-0. Park scored