The progress Liverpool have made since that defeat at Old Trafford in December has been nothing short of remarkable. They remain the only unbeaten team in the Barclays Premier League this year and it owes much to the solidity of a defence now boasting six straight away games without conceding a goal
Clearly, it amounts to a tactical triumph for manager Brendan Rodgers. Not least in the way he tore up his own blueprint for life without Luis Suarez and came up with an entirely new strategy that has worked for the players who remain at Anfield.
That is no easy task, as Roberto Martinez and Louis van Gaal would probably testify.
But watching Liverpool at Swansea on Monday night, their success in stopping their hosts from scoring was down to more than the clever deployment of certain players.
Yes, there is no doubt the decision to move Emre Can into a back three - when he was signed principally as a midfielder – was quite brilliant. Can has been superb in the role alongside Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho, who have also benefitted hugely from a tactical reshuffle that appears to provide them with more security and with it greater confidence.
The decision to drop Simon Mignolet earlier this season has also proved an astute piece of leadership by Rodgers. How a player responds is of the utmost importance and Liverpool’s goalkeeper, much like we saw with Joe Hart at Manchester City, has returned with greater focus and determination. Against Swansea he made some marvellous saves, in particular to deny Bafetimbi Gomis and Gylfi Sigurdsson.
That said, Liverpool’s defence also demonstrated against Swansea that they remain prone to the occasional mistake. There was a moment at The Liberty Stadium, which led to the Mignolet save to deny Gomis, when a neat exchange of passes between Swansea’s French striker and Wayne Routledge left a gaping hole in Liverpool’s back three.
In the press box we do not have the benefit of Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville’s tactical analysis but I can imagine one of them might have highlighted that on their super-duper tactics board at half-time.
This is where Liverpool have also been riding their luck a little; a luxury teams sometimes enjoy when they have a bit of momentum and something that was illustrated further by the nature of Jordan Henderson’s winning goal.
But football teams often make their own luck and the truth is their success in defending their own goal in recent weeks goes way beyond good organisation and some fine individual performances.
It points to the fact that Liverpool, having started the season so poorly, are working doubly hard to get back into contention for the Champions League places.
They are defending as a team, with players tracking back tirelessly from midfield to rescue their colleagues when mistakes are made.
Neil Taylor tested Can on Swansea’s left flank but it was Henderson who was there to make one important interception, even if the challenge was a little over-zealous and earned the England midfielder the first yellow card of the night. When Gomis burst past Skrtel later in the game, it was Joe Allen who was there to cut out the shot.
Desire and determination are important qualities at this stage of the season and Rodgers declared his side’s ambition to finish second again this season in the knowledge that these players want it every bit as much as he does.
Yes, the defenders look more assured. Yes, Skrtel is proving himself a leader in the Liverpool defence. Against Swansea he was outstanding, even producing the initial pass that led to Henderson’s goal. And yes, Sakho and Can are now playing to the level we have long come to expect of Liverpool defenders.
But they are working as a team, and playing with more composure after Rodgers realised the more cavalier approach they employed when Suarez and Daniel Sturridge were terrorising defenders just wasn’t working this season.
The statistics make interesting reading. Only five Premier League goals conceded in 10 games in 2015 compared to 25 in the 19 they had played before the turn of the year. But it’s as much down to hard graft as the intelligence of Rodgers.
And while the deployment of Gerrard as a holding midfielder, and with it a slight change to a diamond formation, gave Henderson the freedom to get further forward last night, it was the mere fact that Henderson was fit enough and determined enough to make that run in pursuit of Sturridge’s flick-on that earned Liverpool their goal.
Seriously motivated, Liverpool are on the move again.
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