{"id":1057,"date":"2017-10-14T15:51:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T15:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2017-10-14T15:51:05","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T15:51:05","slug":"liverpool-0-manchester-united-0-match-review-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpool-0-manchester-united-0-match-review-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool 0 &#8211; Manchester United 0: Match Review &#038; Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some believe that the international break came at exactly the right time, given our reported \u2018slump\u2019 before the players went away to their national sides. It felt like players, management and fans all needed a bit of a break, a chance to get away from each other and try to get their heads together. Whether that\u2019s true or not, the supporters were certainly starting to buy the narrative in the press that we\u2019ve had a poor start to the season. Rather than looking at one loss in the league and unbeaten in Europe, fans have been concentrating on one win in seven and the League Cup loss. There\u2019s even been a sense that J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s job is under pressure, which strikes me as an absolute nonsense.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jurgen Klopp &#8211; flop or not?<\/p>\n<p>Fans and experts give their verdict<\/p>\n<p>Watch: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t6LdYFJE3N\">https:\/\/t.co\/t6LdYFJE3N<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bcbIUhty5w\">pic.twitter.com\/bcbIUhty5w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCSport\/status\/918560150813732864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 12, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ahead of this fixture, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jacklusby_\/status\/918438945918210048\">Jack Lusby on Twitter<\/a> Tweeted about how the Reds have won just 35% of the early kick-offs taking place before 1.30pm under Klopp and how only one of those wins has come at Anfield. Andrew Beasley, meanwhile, pointed out that <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BassTunedToRed\/status\/917422825769709574\">Liverpool have lost three out of three<\/a> against Manchester United with Martin Atkinson in charge. The stats, then, were very much against us heading into this one. It was a genuinely difficult match to call ahead of kick-off, owing partially to the form of both teams and partially to the confidence of the players. Would United come out all guns blazing, looking to put our mentally weak defence under pressure? Or would we continue the sterile domination we\u2019ve demonstrated lately?<\/p>\n<h2>United Showed Zero Ambition<\/h2>\n<p>Consider this. Since Alex Ferguson retired as Manchester United manager, the club has spent well over half a billion pounds on players. Jos\u00e9 Mourinho himself spent \u00a375 million on Romelu Lukaku alone, so it\u2019s fair to say that you might expect them to turn up at Anfield and show a little bit of ambition. Mourinho would no doubt say that playing defensive is a fair tactic and, to some extent, he\u2019d be right. Teams are entitled to play however the manager elects, but when you\u2019re chasing a title and in charge of a team like United it\u2019s bizarre to set out for a 0-0 draw from the first minute. In fact, it was after just 47 seconds that the Red Devils began time-wasting. Standing on the Kop, so far this season I\u2019ve seen Burnley show up and play more excited football and Crystal Palace display more attacking intent than our arch rivals did today.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Klopp on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MUFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MUFC<\/a> tactics: &#8220;For sure you could not play this way at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> but it&#8217;s OK for Manchester United.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shamoon Hafez (@ShamoonHafez) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamoonHafez\/status\/919194426018234368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When United showed up at Anfield in the equivalent fixture last season, Mourinho\u2019s tactics were understandable. Liverpool were on fire and his team were struggling to get their season started, so his decision to put eleven men behind the ball and strangle the life out of the game made some sort of sense. This time around, however, the decision was a bizarre one. United are the team in form, scoring at will and racking up the points in order to keep their neighbours under pressure. The Reds, on the other hand, have been defensively poor for some time and giving away chances when put under a modicum of pressure. Weird, therefore, to come under no pressure whatsoever over the entire ninety minutes. There was no turning of the screw, no period in which we on the ropes; just us attacking and United defending deep.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1061\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_3447-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_3447-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_3447-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_3447-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_3447-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a tactic that\u2019s paid off for Jos\u00e9 Mourinho in years gone by, of course, but the state of the Premier League has changed from when he was able to do it as Chelsea manager. The self-proclaimed \u2018Special One\u2019 has long enjoyed stifling matches against top four rivals, yet the problem he\u2019s got now is that there are six team vying for four positions. Will he really head into ten games against the other five teams hoping for a draw? That\u2019s ten points from a possible thirty and, with Manchester City also steam-rolling the \u2018poorer\u2019 teams in the league you imagine that the top six mini-league will decide the final destination of the Premier League trophy. If he gets his team playing as negatively as that against Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Spurs and us in the remaining games then I don\u2019t see it going to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">One goal in six away league games against the big six for Manchester United under Jose Mourinho.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danielstorey85\/status\/919191612705697792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The weird thing is that Man United fans don\u2019t seem to mind today\u2019s performance. Personally I thought it was embarrassing for a team of their stature to turn up at Anfield and make absolutely no effort to win. For the first time all season, I wasn\u2019t concerned about the goalkeeper or worried about our defence. The question was only about whether or not we could score rather than whether we would concede and I couldn\u2019t believe the shape United adopted when we were on the ball. If Mourinho was hoping that they\u2019d be able to hit us on the counter-attack then he might well have thought about actually taking the reigns off his players. If you think I\u2019m being unfair, consider this: Simon Mignolet had more touches than Lukaku. No ambition, no desire to win.<\/p>\n<h2>Liverpool Looked Lively<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s not all about United playing poorly, though, and the Reds deserve plenty of credit for dominating a match against a side that the table suggests is seven points better than us. Mourinho might have tried to use his press conference to suggest that Liverpool were just as defensive as United, but that\u2019s more fake news than we\u2019ve seen come out of the White House in recent times. We have been accused of numerous things so far this season, including a weak mentality and an inability to create chances against deep-lying teams. You don\u2019t get much more deep-lying than we saw today, yet still we could easily have won it. That man David de Gea had yet another excellent game in goal, always in the right place at the right time and denying us a certain goal in the first-half.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Obviously annoying we haven&#8217;t won but in many ways that was a very accomplished performance. Miles better than United in every department.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Joel Rabinowitz (@joel_archie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joel_archie\/status\/919191726476152833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Our midfield three, which has come under some criticism at times so far this campaign, were significantly better than their counterparts. Gini Wijnaldum looked great in the warm-up and he continued that during the game, perhaps responding to criticism that he \u2018goes missing\u2019 too often. Jordan Henderson did what Jordan Henderson does, turning the ball over quickly and looking to probe when possible. Emre Can was, not for the first time this season, the poorest of our midfielders but even he had some decent moments. Given that they were playing against an eleven man defence, I thought all of three of them did what we needed them to do in the way that they both protected the defence and assisted the attack.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0739-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0739-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0739-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0739-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_0739-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the defence, Romelu Lukaku once again posed us absolutely no issues. He hasn\u2019t put in a good performance at Anfield since he arrived wearing a West Brom shirt and, as far as I\u2019m concerned, long may that continue. He forced a save from Simon Mignolet in the first-half but it never truly tested his Belgian teammate and other than that he was kept quiet by Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip. He was also remarkably fortunate to remain on the pitch after smashing Joe Gomez\u2019s legs away on the touchline and then deliberately kicking Lovren in the head when he was down on the ground. Martin Atkinson matched his fellow referees in doing us no favours with how he officiated the game, with Lukaku allowed to stay on and Henrikh Mkhitaryan tripping Coutinho in the box without punishment.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lukaku could slide tackle Martin Atkinson\u2019s mum and he\u2019d just have a word.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 &#8211; (@AnfieldRd96) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnfieldRd96\/status\/919176003288813574?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019m sick of talking about referees, though, so I\u2019m not going to get bogged down with how Ashley Young was given more second chances than an invincible cat. Instead I\u2019m going to talk about how Coutinho was the best player on the park by some distance and the fact that Mohamed Salah looked like a genuine threat ever time we attacked. Many people felt that a win could have sparked our season but I think the draw may do, given the nature of the performance. We answered some critics and outplayed a United side that is an undoubted title contender, putting ourself in a position where only one team was likely to win all three points. If we can beat Spurs at Wembley next week then we\u2019ll have four points from a possible six against our top four rivals and that\u2019s nothing to be sniffed at.<\/p>\n<h2>Things Are Better Than People Think<\/h2>\n<p>Some Liverpool fans are, weirdly, desperate to believe the media narrative that we\u2019ve not been playing well this season. The reality is that we\u2019ve been playing really well at times but have been found wanting when it comes to the moments of fine margins. We really genuinely could have won all of our games with the exception of the loss to Manchester City, but even that might have turned out differently if the referee had adjudged Sadio Man\u00e9\u2019s high foot in the same manner that several of his colleagues have judged identical situations since. It\u2019s not an excuse, but we\u2019ve been unlucky at times and wasteful at others.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mourinho will be happy with the point but won&#8217;t be happy about the performance I&#8217;d imagine. Liverpool were able to play through Man Utd quite easily and surprisingly often. Also very little counter-attacking threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Blair Newman (@TheBlairNewman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheBlairNewman\/status\/919193127952502784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Today we went toe-to-toe with a Manchester United side that\u2019s seen as one of the title contenders and were better than them all over the pitch. That, for me, is proof that this Liverpool team is better than the results it\u2019s been getting so far this campaign. Thankfully J\u00fcrgen Klopp is not as reactive as either the media or our supporters, so I imagine he\u2019ll tell his players to keep going in the same manner and be confident that the results will shift in their favour. January is likely to be a decisive month as it was last year, but this time we\u2019ll have players with fresher legs and a squad that\u2019s capable enough to cop with the demand placed upon it. Keep within touching distance and you just never know what will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some believe that the international break came at exactly the right time, given our reported \u2018slump\u2019 before the players went away to their national sides. It felt like players, management and fans all needed a bit of a break, a chance to get away from each other and try to get their heads together. Whether that\u2019s true or not, the supporters were certainly starting to buy the narrative in the press that we\u2019ve had a poor start to the season. Rather than looking at one loss in the league and unbeaten in Europe, fans have been concentrating on one win [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}