Liverpool 0 Manchester United 1 player ratings: Wayne Rooney? David De Gea? Roberto Firmino? Who was the star man?

Rooney's late goal won the game for United

Wayne Rooney celebrates his winning goal for Manchester United

Manchester United produced the ultimate smash-and-grab victory at Anfield as Wayne Rooney's 78th-minute goal decided a game barely befitting of England's two most decorated clubs.

While Rooney was the match-winner with the visitors' only shot on target, David de Gea was the man who made the 1-0 win possible with a string of saves and was the far busier of the two goalkeepers.

It was just Rooney's sixth goal in 24 appearances for both Everton and United against Liverpool and his first at Anfield for 11 years but it edged him to within seven of Sir Bobby Charlton's club record of 249 and lifted his side back up to fifth, two points behind Tottenham.

Louis van Gaal's tactics may have been criticised as boring - and one shot on target in 90 minutes hardly did much to alter that - but he will see them as fully justified after leaving Merseyside with all three points.

The game was a reflection of the two clubs' current fortunes; both trying to rediscover their identities under foreign managers and generally struggling for quality, especially in the final third.

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There was also a lack of the ferocity for which this clash of north-west arch-rivals is known.

In the corresponding fixture last season a fired-up Steven Gerrard was sent off less than a minute after coming on at half-time; the highest temperatures rose on a chilly Merseyside afternoon was the confrontation sparked by Lucas Leiva's insistence that Maroune Fellaini had stamped on him off the ball.Both were involved in dramatic 3-3 draws in midweek and although it was too much to hope for a repeat, the standard of finishing on display never suggested it would come remotely close.