I believe we need to blow them out of the water from the start. United will take a cue from our last few matches and try to apply heavy pressure to us early in the match, put us under the kosh and try to nick an early goal then shut up shop and try to stifle. Pogba has some confidence in his game again and he appears to have learned how to defend.
Am glad to see Tiago back as it pushed Henderson up to the #8 role where he gained some success last season (when Fab was playing the #6). Ideally we’d have Tiago and Hendo playing the advance midfield roles ahead of Fab but we don’t have that luxury thus far this season.
So I’m reluctant to put Wijnaldum into this match at the start, as it feels like we really take a step backwards in terms of attacking prowess at that point. What I don’t understand is how he can be SO PROFICIENT playing for the Dutch national team. Maybe the Barca game when he scored two really shows us that he has the ability, but we don’t utilize him properly.
maybe having Tiago ahead of him will help, but I haven’t seen that in a while. so I am hoping it will look like this:
Allison
TAA Matip Fab Robbo
Henderson Wijnaldum
Tiago
Salah Firmino Mane
Origi Oxlade Shaq Milner Keita Phillips Tsimikas Jones Adrian
I really do not like Hendo at CB. Why? Takes away from modified but with the best will in the world its not natural. Has to get out of position. Surely Rhys or Nat are a far better option. Then work out how to protect them from the long punt over the top to Rashford. That protection is Hendo!
So Mark Clattenberg admits cheating has taken place in favour of United, whilst criticising Klopp for questionning the number of penalties they get.
"Klopp does not like losing, he never has. He gets prickly. But he is wrong to suggest there is an aura around United that sees them given favourable decisions. There used to be when Fergie was there, but that has eased massively since he left.
"I am the only referee to give three penalties to the opposition at Old Trafford, and that was for Liverpool, of all teams, in 2014. But David Moyes was manager — I’m not sure that would have happened when Fergie was there!"
United players go down cleverly, Liverpool players (Mo and Sadio) go down easily. Hmm of course there is no bias in football and definitely none against Liverpool.
Waiting for the usual suspects to write about how that’s not the case and to make up for my sadness would I like to go and see their pet unicorn.
Clattenburg can fuck off, calling Klopp a hypocrite. He basically admits United have (in the past) had stuff go for them.
The thing that pisses me off most about the media is the snippets being used to paint a very different picture, which Klopp often alludes to himself often, saying “you create headlines”. When Klopp mentioned United penalties, it was on the back of Liverpool not getting a penalty, and in one of his other post match interviews, he was asked about it along the lines of “Man U have had x number of penalties, whilst Liveprool have had y”. He moves to the next media outlet and says “Someone just told me…” before going into it, when he’s again asked about penalties.
Now in the build up to this game (presser, interviews), he will be asked about penalties or some other nonsense, just to make their own narratives.
Klopp could really do with a big performance on Sunday, where we win without any VAR drama at all.
Nullify Fernandes by marking him out the game, give the ball to Thiago. That will do it.
Glad someone else recognized this. Unlike last year where we were the only big 6 to beat them, they’ve not played all that well against high-caliber opposition, PSG aside.
I’ve heard these games are about as enjoyable as going to the dentist. For that reason, I usually have an edible and plenty of herbal remedy.
We can argue about whether or not we do better or worse with a break, but worth remembering that United played on Tuesday while we’ve been off since Friday. And while the recovery time is one thing, you can bet that Klopp and co will be trying to use the extra days of preparation vis-a-vis United, particularly considering (from what I have observed) our coaching staff is quite good at scouting the opposition and working on the minor details that can win games (like VVD’s header last year being worked on in training the day before).
Amidst all our turmoil this season, it’s worth remembering that unlike every other year where we’ve hosted United and they’ve been able to lord over us never winning the PL, that will not be the case this year.
That’s not an impossible option, if we do go with Hendo at CB, which I expect… and then we think either a 3rd central midfielder in a 4-3-3 from; Milner, Jones, Chamberlain. Or potentially flip to 4-2-3-1 and have Ox or even Shaqiri off the right.
I think we’ll still go 4-3-3 from the start here. Very much back to our basic game, no messing around. I wouldn’t mind Milner starting in midfield here, that experience could be important. With Jones… you still don’t know if it’s his day or not. But we’ll see, he might start and do well.
Whoever is that “new” option in midfield, he will probably give us an hour or so. So we’ll need other options as well.
