What Manchester United did vs Liverpool summed up their biggest change in 2024

When Manchester United were beaten at the London Stadium on December 23 things were looking grim for Erik ten Hag and his team. It was four games without a goal and three defeats from those matches. It was not a happy Christmas.

At that point, United had failed to find the back of the net in five of their last six games, had recently been beaten 3-0 at home by Bournemouth and had lost 13 of their first 26 games in all competitions. Three months on they have lost only a further three times and although the turnaround wasn't instant, something has certainly changed.

Arguably, the change is a fairly simple one. United are still open, they still give the opposition chances, but they are finally scoring goals themselves and that is allowing them to win more games than they lose. It wasn't the case in the autumn.

ALSO READ: Ten Hag discovered a new game-changer in Liverpool win

ALSO READ: Amad opens up on Ten Hag relationship after Liverpool win

A 4-3 scoreline isn't unusual this season. United lost games by that score to Bayern Munich and FC Copenhagen earlier in the season. Since February, they have beaten Wolves and Liverpool by the same score. So often games involving this team remain chaotic and unstructured, but the failings are less of a concern if you can score goals.

Having gone 439 minutes without a goal in December, United have now scored in 14 successive games. In total, they have found the net 32 times in those matches, at an average of 2.28 goals a game. To put that into context, United scored 32 goals in their first 26 games of the season. The improvement is stark.

Those last 14 games, beginning with the win against Aston Villa on Boxing Day, have produced just three clean sheets, but United have still won