ERIK TEN HAG has lift-off.
Having put a rocket up his players the week before, the response came.
It’s one small step for Ten Hag, but in light of the first two games and the opposition, it really is one giant leap for Manchester United kind.
When it’s against Liverpool, the dominant force in English football alongside Manchester City, it just means more.
Jadon Sancho after 15 minutes and Marcus Rashford in the 53rd got the goals to ensure a first league victory over their fiercest rivals in four years.
How Old Trafford loved it.
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Ten Hag made some big calls here dropping the club captain Harry Maguire, and the biggest name in Cristiano Ronaldo.
They worked.
Something had to change after opening defeats to Brighton and the humiliation at the hands of Brentford.
It did.
He said he made the changes to get more ‘mobility’ at the back and upfront, he got that.
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The best chance Liverpool had of scoring, until Mohammed Salah’s late goal, was when Bruno Fernandes diverted a ball towards his own goal hitting teammate Lisandro Martinez on the line.
There was a new fizz about the United front line with Anthony Elanga excellent, Sancho looking more like his normal self, Rashford out of his shell, Anthony Martial on in the second half and in the action.
Fernandes had been given the armband in the absence of Maguire and may hang on to it for a while yet.
The responsibility suited him as he found his passing range once more.
Christian Eriksen slightly deeper pinged balls around too.
There was no messing at the back anymore.
This team simply cannot play out from the goalkeeper. Ten Hag gets it now too, so David De Gea was sending kicks straight to halfway.
The tenacious Scott McTominay was digging in to claim anything loose and defy his critics of which there are too many.
United should have been ahead after ten minutes thanks to his brilliant through ball for Fernandes.
Seeing Joe Gomez racing across the Portuguese midfielder slid along the ground and hooked the ball past him square to Elanga.
He had time, he had the target, he beat the goalkeeper with his shot but the ball hit the right-hand upright.
Just five minutes later and United were ahead.
Eriksen and Elanga played a neat one-two with the latter squaring for Sancho.
The former Borussia Dortmund winger had so much time and space, he took a couple of touches and turned as James Milner slid across him.
He was able to take another couple as Virgil van Dijk inexplicably continued to stand off him.
Fernandes, ahead of Sancho, pointed to the empty side of the goal in which to shoot in and he obliged.
Old Trafford went mad and Milner went made with Van Dijk.
Elanga was electric tearing between two Liverpool players forcing a foul out of Trent Alexander-Arnold for which he would be booked.
Eriksen took the free kick firing a shot to the far top corner which the fingertips of Alisson diverted over.
At half-time, it was roars rather than the usual boos that greeted the players.
A nervous-looking United had been transformed by Ten Hag over the last week.
Liverpool had looked unconvincing in drawing their first two games and did so again.
Loose passes missing their target were greeted with roars from the United fans.
Ten Hag made a change at the break with Elanga coming off for Anthony Martial who had missed the opening two games with a hamstring injury,
He had looked sharp in pre-season scoring in each of their first three games on tour in Bangkok and Australia, one of them in a 4-0 win against a depleted Liverpool.
He looked sharp here too. Martial moved into the middle Rashford went wide left and when in the 53rd minute Jordan Henderson miscontrolled on halfway they combined.
Martial slid a great ball through, Rashford was one-on-one, a situation he comes off second best in too many times – not this time.
Striding onto the ball he steered a shot past the advancing Alisson and in.
Charging off his pent-up frustration was released as he picked the corner flag and threw it to the ground.
It was tight for offside but VAR ruled in Rashford’s favour.
Old Trafford was bouncing like it hadn’t been for a very long time.
But hang on, with nine minutes left Liverpool got one back when substitute Fabio Carvalho shot was saved and Mohammed Salah headed home the loose ball that popped up.
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For a moment, anxiety replaced joy around the stadium.
United quickly steadied, they would not be denied.
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