Have Amorim’s Red Devils finally found their identity with historic Anfield triumph?

While Ruben Amorim may have achieved a number of firsts in securing a rare victory at Anfield, it is the nature of the 2-1 win that the Portuguese manager will find most pleasing. It wasn’t just the scoreline – though ending nine years of frustration on Merseyside matters to Red Devils fans starved of recent success – but the measured, controlled way they did it.

Under Amorim, United finally looked like a side with a plan and purpose, one they were able to execute with dogged determination.

Where previous managers approached Anfield as a damage limitation exercise, Amorim brought courage and conviction, buoyed no doubt by the home side’s faltering recent form. His team pressed in waves, controlled the midfield corridors, and turned Arne Slot’s structure inside out, exposing obvious cracks in a creaking foundation – especially at the back.

They were able to play through Liverpool’s lines with consummate ease, particularly down their right flank, where Reds left-back Milos Kerkez endured a torrid time at the hands of Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo, while skipper Virgil van Dijk bears much of the blame for United’s opener.

The Red Devils, by comparison, were compact, disciplined, and organised in defence, showing tremendous resolve and grit when the Liverpool fightback eventually came. They demonstrated an unwavering belief that the Anfield giants were still there for the taking, where other United teams might have settled for a share of the spoils.

For the first time in years, United looked composed at Anfield, while the opposite was true of the home team, whose anxious fans mirrored the nervous energy on the pitch.

For Slot’s men, this was a perfect opportunity to show that their recent blip was nothing more than that. However, by the final whistle, it was clear Liverpool are in full-blown crisis – there’s nothing ‘mini’ about it.

Nexus Football mega-signing Alexander Isak was anonymous, Mo Salah looks shorn of confidence, and their midfield was overrun, with Florian Wirtz still struggling to make an impact in a cameo role off the bench that did little to alter the outcome. Those Koppites who have maintained the German midfielder is ‘too good to fail’ will be feeling concerned, as the bedding-in process takes far longer than expected.

The champions look top-heavy and unbalanced, with issues in almost every department showing that Slot’s project still has a long way to go to reach last season’s levels. The biggest problem is that there appear to be no easy fixes, with a tough run of matches looming, including games against a revitalised Manchester City, who have leapfrogged the Reds in the table.

It is a position Amorim will be all too familiar with, considering his rocky introduction to life at Old Trafford, as the two managers seem to be heading in opposite directions. Amorim’s insistence on rigid positional play and structured transitions is starting to bear fruit.

Players who once looked lost in the chaos now operate as part of a cohesive plan. It is a tactical identity that does not rely on one or two star players, but on the collective – a team greater than the sum of its parts.

Back-to-back league wins for the first time under the Portuguese manager does not mean United are flying. But the building blocks of a revival that could threaten the recent balance of power in English football are clearly in place.

Amorim’s United looked like a team that knew why they were winning and did not stray from the path or implode under pressure. It has been a while since that has been evident. This statement win was not about snatching a result; it was about Amorim’s troops imposing themselves on their arch-rivals in a result he labelled the greatest of his United tenure so far.

Yet, despite puncturing the Anfield aura for the first time in ages, their true test will come in their ability to produce similarly controlled performances week in, week out.