Liverpool are a team looking and moving forwards but that cannot be said for vanquished foes Manchester United

In the away section of Old Trafford, they sang about Luis Suarez and Luis Garcia, two former Liverpool players who have enjoyed good days at this stadium.

The truth, however, is that Liverpool are a team looking and moving forwards rather than backwards. The same cannot be said for their vanquished foes from Manchester.

Sport is largely about the present. If everything is good today then the world seems right. Tomorrow can be worried about when it arrives. It is, however, also about possibility and about anticipation. It is about the prospects of good times — better times — around the corner.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp pumps his fist in celebration after his side reached the quarter-finals

The Manchester United players can't hide their frustration at full-time as they crashed out of Europe

That hope, that optimism, is currently what sustains Liverpool. It is its absence that eats away at the souls of those on the Stretford End. Manchester United were improved here on Thursday night. They had to be. Never again can they be allowed to be as poor, as desperate and disparate, as they had been in their first leg surrender at Anfield.

During the first half here they played with tempo, were progressive and scored first. They frightened Liverpool and made them ponder the prospect of just what it may feel like to be on the wrong end of a great European comeback. For a while, Old Trafford began to dream a little bit.

Inevitably, however, there was too much to do and United didn’t have the quality in their team to sustain early progress.

Liverpool always looked likely to pick them off at least once and their brilliant Brazilian Philippe Coutinho eventually ended the tie just before half-time. The United defence saw Coutinho coming but they still couldn’t stop him. It was a knife thrust in to the chest rather than the shoulder blades.

So United are left to ponder the poverty of their current situation while Liverpool can consider possibilities. Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have a sense of purpose. There seems to be a plan and a structure. There are players to build a team around and a coach to glue the pieces together.

On Thursday the best players on the pitch were the two Liverpool central defenders — Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren — and two of their midfielders, Coutinho and Adam Lallana. As such they could afford to live with indifferent performances from centre forward Daniel Sturridge and right back Nathaniel Clyne, a young player troubled throughout by United’s excellent French forward Anthony Martial.

Liverpool playmaker Philipp Coutinho chipped in this delighted equaliser for the away side at Old Trafford

As for United, apart from Martial their best player was perhaps David de Gea in goal. For all that United enjoyed more territory and possession than they have for a while — and engineered more shooting chances — they still needed their wonderful goalkeeper desperately. De Gea may have done better as Coutinho scored but it is rare we criticise him and it was a marginal call anyway. Before that, the Spaniard had already saved brilliantly from Coutinho to prevent United falling behind in the first half and he then saved twice at the death to ensure his team took a draw on the night at least.

To lose home and away to Liverpool would have been unbearable for United and De Gea saved them from that at least.

But where is the hope for United and the supporters who at least had the class to stay and applaud them from the field? Where is the foundation and the building blocks with which to build for better times?

Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana (right) was in fine form for the away side at Old Trafford on Thursday night

Anthony Martial fires in a penalty for Manchester United during the Europa League clash with Liverpool

Martial is congratulated by United team-mates Jesse Lingard (centre) and Juan Mata on Thursday

They have the wrong manager. Everyone knows that, even the ponderous fellows in the Old Trafford boardroom. Van Gaal let his team off the leash a little bit — he had to — and they responded with some verve and some energy. At United these days, such basics are not always taken for granted.

Still, though, the United coach failed to make brave substitutions. Indeed the site of the ailing Bastian Schweinsteiger hacking desperately at Lallana’s legs late in the game was telling. The past versus the future, that one.

Managers can be changed, though. It’s the players that clubs get stuck with and it is this that should really worry United. How many of these players would other top clubs in the Barclays Premier League genuinely covet? De Gea and Martial certainly but apart from that? Very few.

Louis van Gaal trudges off the Old Trafford pitch after Manchester United were sent out the Europa League

This, therefore, is what separates these two great clubs at the moment and it has been a while since we have said that. Liverpool need improvement and they certainly need depth. For a while on Thursday, they looked rather nervous and this certainly transpired to be a more straight forward night than appeared likely after Martial’s penalty.

Klopp’s players are improving under him, though. Lallana, for example, looks reborn as indeed does the talented German Emre Can.

This has been a disappointing season in Europe for English teams. The fact that Spain have six teams left in the quarter-finals of the two European competitions should edge English clubs towards introspection.

But we can leave Liverpool out of that equation for now at least. They have made a statement of sorts over the last eight days. For United, it’s the questions that hurt today. 

The mood of the Manchester United players was perfectly encapsulated by Bastian Schweinsteiger (centre)