- 2 years ago
You can never really predict what Manchester United will turn up on any given day anymore. But you can certainly predict what Liverpool will turn up with a lot more certainty. With the 4-3 loss in the FA Cup looking a recent anomaly for Klopp's men; Adam Monk takes a look at how they can learn from their mistakes this time round...
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00:00Hello everyone, Adam Monk here again from 442 back with another Friday show and just
00:10before we start I'd like to say I actually was right for the very first time last Friday.
00:15Well sort of, I mean I did say that Arsenal were defending a narrow 4-4-2 which they did
00:20and they nullified De Bruyne and Foden in the 8th position so I was right on that.
00:25But then they kind of protested against everything that was pure about football and the want
00:29to score goals and attack a penalty area so I was wrong on that part because they just
00:33didn't even try to score a goal.
00:36And no, I'm not bitter.
00:37Anyway, this week it is Manchester United, how do you even analyse Man Utd anymore?
00:44I mean listen, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad, then the next week they're good,
00:49then the next week they're bad, and then the next week they're good, and then the next
00:52week they're bad, and then they're really good, and then the next week they're really
00:55really bad.
00:56It's just, I can't do it anymore.
01:05They did though have one of their really good games against Liverpool at Old Trafford recently
01:09where they won 4-3 so you can expect Man Utd to at least attempt to play out the game in
01:15similar fashion or at least have some attacking impetus and replicate certain patterns that
01:19they did in that game to beat Liverpool.
01:22So it begs the question, what do Liverpool need to change to win the game because they've
01:26not won at Old Trafford in 10 years and they currently are as it stands the favourites
01:30to win the Premier League and they are top so it's a game that they need to win so yeah,
01:35how do they go about it?
01:37Well a nice place to start would be the stats from the 4-3 game recently.
01:41This is what is known as insanity and you will remember from watching the game that
01:44it was insanity.
01:46This game for Liverpool was a smouldering fire and what Liverpool effectively are going
01:50to have to do is bring in the fire brigade to pour a lot of water on that fire and stop
01:55it and just calm everything down because that game, it will not repeat itself again but
01:59it cannot first and foremost.
02:02This was the XI that played in that game though and given the availability since it's only
02:05really Trent who's made a return to training therefore the squad is pretty much going to
02:10play out the same as it did in this game, maybe Conor Bradley will start, maybe Harvey
02:14Elliott but for the most part it's going to be a pretty similar XI for Liverpool.
02:18So to stop the freneticism of that game it's going to have to be individual discipline
02:23drilled into these players this time round.
02:25So point A and a very simple point A, do not give the ball away stupidly like this or like
02:31this.
02:32It's rule number one of football really even when you learn it as a kid, it's not
02:36greatly tactical but keep things simple because in a game of this high stakes and this high
02:40quality it's going to cost you.
02:42So yeah rule number one, don't be stupid and don't give the ball away stupidly, clock
02:46teams usually aren't, they're usually very very good and I think we can just put
02:49that 4-3 game down to the magic of the FA Cup, TM.
02:53So who do Liverpool need to look to nullify in this game to have a better chance of winning
02:57it?
02:58Well Manchester United's not main man at the moment but best performing player certainly
03:02is a man that I made a video on a couple of weeks ago and for good reason because of how
03:05good he is and that is Kobi Mainu.
03:08Now you'll remember that in this game Kobi Mainu had an absolute field day at breaking
03:12the lines of defence and I don't even necessarily mean that in a transitional passing sense
03:16I literally just mean his ball carrying, he was taking 2-3 players head on at times, driving
03:21into the box and setting up teammates for chances that they probably should have put
03:25away.
03:26So yeah it's given Ten Hag another weapon and a little bit more tactical flexibility
03:30so how do Liverpool nullify Mainu because he really was the main source of goal threat
03:34particularly in the full 90 minutes in that FA Cup game the other week.
03:38Extra time was obviously bedlam, we'll forget about that.
03:40I really think Liverpool could actually just benefit from sticking someone on Kobi Mainu,
03:45very Ander Herrera following Edin Hazard-esque if you remember that video from a few years
03:49ago.
03:50But yeah maybe pinning someone like Wataru Endo or Alexis McAllister onto him because
03:55you know in that game in the FA Cup he was really the main source of what was scaring
03:58Liverpool either whether he was driving with it or as we know in other games that we've
04:02seen for Manchester United he's a great outlet to play the outboards the likes of Rashford
04:06and Garnaccio in transition.
04:08Now United themselves will likely sit off Liverpool which is what they did in the 4-3
04:12so when Liverpool have got the ball in their back line they won't actually press Liverpool
04:16or try and put them under much pressure, they'll give them time on the ball.
04:20Now reason number one that they did this was to actually and ironically kill the intensity
04:25of the game because when you have an intense game against Liverpool they usually thrive
04:28on that and kill you off so the initial plan from Ten Hag was just to take the sting out
04:32of Liverpool.
04:33And what United would do is they would trigger their press only when Liverpool's defensive
04:37players had limited options to pass to so they'd sit off and try and cut the passing
04:41lanes to Liverpool's central midfielders and then when Liverpool wanted to force, well
04:45not force the ball but go backwards to the goalkeeper United would then trigger their
04:48press kind of forcing them to go long.
04:50Now the way I feel Liverpool could counter this because we can assume United will try
04:54and do the same thing is to a pack that midfield either by inverting Joe Gomez or perhaps Conor
04:59Bradley who might not be as adept at it, Joe Gomez has of course played six in certain
05:03games this season.
05:05So on the ball pull him into the midfield to create a kind of box with him, Endo, McAllister
05:10and Zobazly and then once they've done that and I might get laughed at here but I actually
05:14think then the best course of action might be to force it once they've got the ball in
05:18the middle of the park because they were having to go long from the goalkeeper at Old Trafford
05:22an awful lot so once they've got the ball in the middle of the park force it then and
05:26take a leaf out of Brentford's book.
05:28Now this isn't totally insane, hear me out.
05:31Of the 55,000 chances that Brentford created the other week there was a lot of them that
05:35were tailor made to Liverpool's front three and creative players.
05:39If Liverpool can create their box midfield and advance into the middle of the park and
05:42keep the ball like in this screenshot here then it might be worth advancing someone like
05:46Zobazly into the number 10 position behind United's defensive midfielders to pick it
05:50up in these pockets of space.
05:52Then you've got three incredible runners in Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Darwin Nunes who can
05:57all be fed in behind but not even necessarily fed.
06:00Play balls like what I'm going to show you now that will cause jeopardy.
06:04United hate jeopardy, I cannot stress this enough.
06:06You look at this chance here, it's not even a chance, it's a ball fed into the box.
06:10There's three bodies around Visser and a bundle and a ricochet and a toe poke makes the ball
06:14find its way to the byline and in this case Visser could be someone like Mo Salah who
06:18is obviously extremely quick and quick of thought as well most importantly to latch
06:22onto the end of these balls and cause chaos which is obviously something we know Darwin
06:27Nunes for.
06:28But then this chance here, it's a long ball, it's a direct ball, there's nothing particularly
06:32fancy about it and Trent Alexander-Arnold hasn't had to play it.
06:35It's a ball that's been lumped in there.
06:37Now a player of Nunes' physique and stature and overall lust for chaos is a player who
06:42will thrive on balls like this and make United centre halves really think twice and how did
06:47Brentford not score about five in this game by the way.
06:50Well these are the kind of balls that Liverpool should be looking to play because they effectively
06:53just invoke fear into an already disorganised Manchester United backline, an injury stricken
06:58Manchester United backline and one that's just been bad all year.
07:02Hello guys, I hope that wasn't too much of a jump scare, a bit of a change of scenery.
07:05I'm actually in London and thought it'd be a decent segue into this section where I interview
07:09someone because United are currently 2-2 with Chelsea at half time, which is expected to
07:19say the least because that's what United and Chelsea are like at the moment, flip flop
07:22clubs.
07:23So we've got Wayne Farrie on today who is an ex-colleague of mine and a big Manchester
07:27United fan to try and make sense of whatever Manchester United are right now.
07:33So anyway Wayne, take it away, why are United so inconsistent?
07:40Thank you for having me on, thank you for giving me a very easy question to begin with.
07:47I think you can divide Manchester United fans into two camps in terms of where the blame
07:54is attributed with regards to everything that is going on.
08:00I say two camps because I think everyone agrees that the club under the glazers has just been
08:05very much not conducive to any kind of success, whether on the boardroom level or on the pitch.
08:13I'm of the opinion that it's the manager's fault because a lot of the players don't really
08:20perform at the level of vim, vigour that you would hope to get from players of Manchester
08:26United Football Club, as Gary Neville would say, but at the same time the manager brings
08:31in the players, the manager motivates the players.
08:34Or in the case of Ten Hag, the manager kind of alienates the players.
08:39I think that it's, I feel like your reference there to the Brentford game is an important
08:46one because I feel like that game, like a lot of games over the years under Ten Hag,
08:51it feels like it encapsulated his time at United, where like, you know, backs to the
08:56wall for long periods of time, then they nick a goal and you think, whoa, there's a corner
09:00being turned here.
09:02And then before you've even had a chance to like blink, you can see the bat, you know,
09:08and it's just like, there's no consistency, no momentum, and a lot of money has been spent,
09:14which I think is like a very, very key thing.
09:17I think it's Ten Hag's fault.
09:20I would be happy if he were to leave.
09:24I'm not convinced that Manchester United should ever hire a Dutch manager again.
09:29I'm not going to say anything about bald people, but I'm just going to talk about Dutch managers.
09:33Yeah, I think the fault lies with him.
09:35Look, the players aren't perfect, but you know.
09:38Well, that kind of leads me into my next question, because I'll give you a stat, I'll throw another
09:42stat at you, not just about the Brentford game, but United have faced over 100 shots
09:46in the last three games.
09:48Now, that to me is that bad that it would indicate that the players have maybe downed
09:53tools already and don't even want to play for him anymore.
09:56Do you think that could be the case?
09:58Obviously one of those games was the win at home to Liverpool, which was just chaos, but
10:03that's indicative of like, just a lack of effort on the pitch, which surely must stem
10:09from the bench.
10:10Yeah, I think so.
10:12I think that like, it just, you know, anytime you watch Manchester United, and I watch them
10:19too often, but you just kind of get the feeling that it doesn't look like they're being coached,
10:26you know, or that if they are, the players are forgetting what they're being coached
10:30immediately, you know, which is like really kind of bizarre because, you know, you look
10:35at top class managers, and you look at the instructions that they give to their players,
10:41and I'm talking about Arteta and Pep particularly, you can see, you can see that even even Arteta's
10:48early stages where it wasn't really, you know, coming together fully, you could see what
10:52he was going for, you know, and I don't think you can really see what Ten Hag is going for.
10:59Like, yes, early in games, the intensity can be pretty good, but they flag so quickly,
11:06they flag so quickly in every single game.
11:10And you also have to look at like the injury issues as well.
11:12I think that's another kind of question that needs to be asked is like, why are so many
11:16players getting injured so frequently?
11:18And why are players being rushed back from injury?
11:22It does feel like a lot of the time like, yeah, that the players, I mean, I wouldn't
11:27say they're playing for him in any particular way, whatsoever.
11:30I think a lot of them are playing for themselves, like the, I mean, what the bright part of
11:35the season has been Kobe Mane and Garnaccio, you know, and, and I think regardless of who
11:43the manager is, it'd be very, very concerning if those two players weren't highly motivated.
11:48I think the fact that they're the two bright spots in the season is a good thing, don't
11:53get me wrong, but also slightly concerning as well.
11:56What do you expect from, from Liverpool in this game?
11:58And do you think United can go on and win it?
12:02I don't think United are going to win it.
12:04I think that United were pretty lucky to win against Liverpool.
12:08I know that like Rashford missed it.
12:10I'll boost your confidence though.
12:11I'll boost your confidence.
12:12Liverpool have won once at Old Trafford in the last decade.
12:15That was 5-0, but they've only won once there.
12:18Yeah.
12:19I don't really put an enormous amount of credence in history, to be honest.
12:25I see your point, for sure.
12:28I think that those sort of historical stats probably have a lot more weight when it's,
12:32for example, when was the last time Luton Town won at Old Trafford?
12:35I think that's the thing that really kind of, you know, like the, much of that record
12:41is down to Alex Ferguson and, you know, and how well he did.
12:45And obviously then there was that period too, after him, where United kind of still inexplicably
12:50had a pretty good record against Liverpool, because that's the thing I think.
12:52They actually, it really does feed into this, is that United have a habit of sometimes turning
12:59it on massively at Old Trafford for the big games.
13:03And even when you're watching them and that game on St. Patrick's Day against Liverpool
13:08in the FA Cup, you felt like they were summoning something from somewhere else.
13:13This didn't feel normal.
13:15This didn't feel like, like I absolutely believe that the players on the pitch have the ability
13:19to do what they did for sure.
13:22But the fact that it requires a game of really like of chaos where, where the kind of where
13:32each team abandons their philosophy, that's the environment in which United can succeed
13:40rather than let's say a controlled environment where they're, they're enacting their own
13:43tactics and Liverpool are doing the same.
13:45I think if you break that game down into both teams playing exactly how they plan to
13:49play or how they can play, then I think Liverpool are always going to be the team that comes
13:55out on top in that situation.
13:56And yeah, they haven't won a lot of matches at Old Trafford, but at the same time, they're
14:02really...
14:03There's added emphasis right now, isn't there?
14:05Yeah.
14:06With who they are in the table.
14:07And like, you know, you just can't, they're really, really good.
14:11They are really good.
14:12And like, I think you're like, you look at, you look at the stats there, like they've
14:1513 fewer goals conceded than United, 27 goals more scored.
14:20Like the fact that we're, we are nine games away from the end of Manchester United season
14:24and they have a goal difference of zero, I find very, very galling.
14:29And I just think that it's interesting that, you know, I don't, I'm not saying people are
14:33sleeping on Liverpool in any way whatsoever, but I think there is probably a focus more
14:37on Arteta and Pep, Arsenal, obviously having come so close to winning the league last season.
14:44I think there's probably a bit more focus on Arsenal and City and maybe a little less
14:47pressure on Liverpool externally, even though I would imagine there's an enormous amount
14:52of pressure internally, given that it's Klopp's final season.
14:55But I just think that Liverpool are very, very complete at the moment.
15:01I think that they'll learn the lessons of what happened at Old Trafford in terms of
15:05you don't want to meet United in a dogfight.
15:08You have to like, you have to be meticulous and you have to be very disciplined really
15:15when playing against United because United will try and break down what you do and will
15:20try because this is the thing is that like United just aren't good enough to play people
15:23at their own game.
15:24So they have to kind of drag the level down a little bit.
15:27I don't see Liverpool falling for that again.
15:32And I can see like even just even like, you know, Ahmad's goal at the end of that match,
15:39like that was from that was due to hesitation from Liverpool players after their own game.
15:45Like that isn't happening again.
15:47I don't see that happening again.
15:49I like predictions are a difficult one, particularly score predictions, but let's just say you
15:56can't get away with it.
15:57I'm not going to say right now, but let's just say I don't expect to feel happy come
16:01the end of this match.
16:02Yeah, well, neither do I because I'm a City fan, obviously, but I need United to win and
16:06it's a weird position to be in.
16:08So, yeah, well, there we go.
16:10I mean, Liverpool United, Wayne, I can only leave you with a score prediction.
16:15OK, my score prediction is Manchester United 1, Liverpool 3 and I'm going to guess that
16:27Is Hoyland back?
16:29He's back, isn't he?
16:30I think so.
16:31Yeah.
16:32He did an interview with Sky this week, which would suggest he's back.
16:34So yeah, I think Hoyland's going to score and I think we're going to see three goals
16:40shared between Darwin Nunes and Mohamed Salah.
16:44And it's going to be I think it's going to be a bit of a drubbing, but I hope I'm wrong.
16:49Not right.
16:50Well, I guess I guess in a way, it's actually a win win for me this weekend.
16:53I'll be laughing either way.
16:55So, yeah, there we go.
16:57Well, thank you very much for joining us, Wayne.
16:59Really appreciate that.
17:00Cheers.
17:01Cheers.
17:02Take care.
17:03Anyway, guys.
17:04Yes, Liverpool Manchester United.
17:05I just want another 4-3, to be honest.
17:09Don't forget to subscribe, though, guys.
17:10I've been Adam Monk.
17:12Take care.
17:13I'll see you very soon.
17:14Goodbye.
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