Liverpool star Thiago Alcantara was laughing at Manchester United throughout his "p*** taking" performance on Tuesday night.
That is the verdict from Gary Neville, who glumly watched the 4-0 thrashing of his old side at Anfield in co-commentary. Jurgen Klopp's side put the Red Devils to the sword in a shocking display for the visitors; a result that saw the hosts keep the pressure on Premier League title rivals Manchester City.
One of the stars of the show was Thiago, who was absolutely electric throughout the contest. His performance was full of delightful flicks, jaw-dropping passes and leaving United players with whiplash.
And Neville believes that the Spain international was thoroughly enjoying himself, as evident by the chuckle that he and Klopp shared when he took him off with 10 minutes to go. "What Liverpool have done tonight is toyed with Manchester United," the former defender said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
"Thiago was laughing when he came off, he was laughing at them all game. I don’t normally swear on the Gary Neville Podcast, but he took the f****** p*** out of Manchester United tonight. That was so simple for the Liverpool players."
During his commentary, Neville praise Hannibal Mejbri - who came on for the last handful of minutes and was caught in possession as Liverpool scored a fourth, committed two fouls and received a booking for sending Naby Keita flying.
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The Red Devils legend admitted that it was somewhat unprofessional but insisted that the 19-year-old showed more fight than the rest of the squad. Neville added: "You find yourself being slightly unprofessional because he’s come on and started to top some of them, but the reality is I had to say it.
"Because the instinct in you, the 1980s, 1990s growing up through those periods, if you’re having the p*** taken out of you on a football pitch, and if Thiago is going around there rolling his foot on the ball, pipping it around the corner and laughing at you on the bench, you’ve got to come on and throw a few challenges out.
"That’s what Norman Whiteside used to do, and Bryan Robson when they came here [to Anfield] and they knew they were playing against better players and a better team, they’d come and give it some.
"And I watched a [Manchester United] team through the 80s who didn’t win the league, so this isn’t coming from a point of utopia, I came from a poor childhood because this club [Liverpool] were winning everything.
"But those players out on the pitch never did that [United’s performance against Liverpool], they never, ever did that.
"And that kid came on at the end and he showed something. And he reminded me of Nobby Stiles, and Eric Harrison, and the basic, basic principles of being a football player – compete, win your duels, fight for every ball."
