“Unstoppable Liverpool Faces Tactical Challenge: Can Klopp’s Reds Crack Man Utd’s Defensive Wall?”
Jürgen Klopp is spot on about Man Utd as ruthless Liverpool task already clear
Jürgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag before Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United.
Jürgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag before Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United. (Image: Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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There is an argument that Liverpool beating Manchester United by quite so many goals last season could make things more tricky for Jürgen Klopp’s side this time around. It is an argument that Klopp himself is keen to play into.
While Liverpool found things so easy against a Manchester United side that fell apart in the second half at Anfield in March, Erik ten Hag will only be emboldened to sit deep this time around. The chances of an expansive, attacking performance are slim.
Not only did the Old Trafford outfit lose heavily the last time it faced Liverpool, but it is also in the midst of an injury crisis that is likely to see Jonny Evans line up at the heart of the defense. Marcus Rashford might be back, but Bruno Fernandes is suspended.
That kind of low block — something that Ten Hag will be reasonably easily able to convince his players on in the circumstances — is likely to make things tricky for Liverpool. Manchester United seems likely to want to sit in and try and counter.
Liverpool’s task will be to ensure that it cannot escape easily. While a low block might be easy to sell to players (and fans) wary of another hammering, it is less simple to deploy against waves of Reds attacks (or at least, that will be Liverpool’s job: to make it hard).
“Yes, I do not like all this talk around it,” Klopp said during his pre-match press conference, referencing the previous result and the current malaise that Manchester United finds itself in. “It is always like this. The more bad things people say about them, the stronger they will show up. That is always the case. I don’t like that.
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Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.
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“I don’t know about the situation there. I am interested in our situation. It is a home game and we have to show up. We are in our own stadium, we have to create an atmosphere and go for them and not think about anything else.
“I will make sure from our point of view that we will be 100 per cent focused on the right stuff. But we are human beings and there is a noise around and when I am aware of it that means that there is obviously something going on.”
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Part of the challenge will be to get around that noise and make sure that it is simply about the football being played on the Anfield turf. But while on the one hand, Klopp is right to urge caution over over-confidence, Liverpool has often proven to be good at playing the match at hand rather than the occasion.
Klopp has, on several occasions including the most recent Merseyside derby, made Everton ‘just another game’. Liverpool, like with Manchester United, is better than its cross-city opponent, and if the game is played on those terms alone, the right victor will emerge.
No matter the circumstances, Liverpool needs to be ruthless in efficiently proving just how big the gulf really is to Manchester United on Sunday — even though another seven-goal margin is off the table, three points is a must.
