United piling the pressure on Klopp & Co
AS United pushed to have their game in hand against Burnley squeezed into January’s tight schedule, they could easily have taken their eye off the ball.
The Reds might have realised that getting the game at Turf Moor played this month would take the pressure off later in the season, should they continue to excel in cup competitions or become a victim of any Covid-related postponements.
Yet the desire to play the game on Tuesday, January 12, was also keeping the pressure on.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are in a rich vein of form right now, with 26 points from a possible 30, and they’ve eroded Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table.
By heading to East Lancashire in their first free midweek of the season United will make sure the trip to Anfield five days later will see the two sides level on games played. Should the Reds win they will be level on points, at least, as well.
United are sensing an unexpected opportunity right now and by hoping to bank the three points at Turf Moor before going to face Jurgen Klopp’s side they’re aiming to put the defending champions under pressure.
Yet to do that they needed to win two testing Old Trafford fixtures either side of the New Year. The tense wins over Wolves and Aston Villa spoke of the character and belief in this United side at the moment and it might have sent a message down the East Lancs Road as well – that they don’t intend to disappear from Liverpool’s coattails.
Liverpool’s title win last season was mightily impressive, but they were never put under any pressure, mostly as a result of their own excellence, it should be said.
After 10 games they led by six points, after 20 games they led by 13 points and after 30 games they’d won the league. It was a procession rather than a title race.
But this chaotic campaign was never likely to resemble that smooth passage. There are too many unknowns this season, the fitness in a congested schedule, the risk of Covid outbreaks, the possibility of postponements and the difficulty of maintaining form throughout it all.
The idea of form – or momentum – is going to be an elusive one for many clubs this season. There were times in December it looked like Liverpool were going to put their fo foot down, but draws against Fu Fulham, West Brom and Newcastle in the space of 18 days ended that idea.
Now Klopp’s men find themselves level on points with United as we approach the halfway stage of the season. Nobody saw this coming even two months ago and it’s the Reds, with eight wins and two draws from 10 games, who hold the momentum at the moment, although that can easily be surrendered this season.
How Liverpool cope with a challenger hanging on to them is going to be intriguing to see in January.
While the pressure was never applied last season, they now have tonnes of it on them and it’s certainly the champions who have it all to lose.
They’ve been narrow favourites for much of the season but their expected challengers have always been City, who could yet make up ground out of the pack, rather than United.
Solskjaer’s side were 50/1 to win the league just over two months ago, now they are level at the top. They really do having nothing to lose. This is an unexpected shot at a 21st title.
That makes them a dangerous force, especially in this kind of form. Win at Burnley and head to Anfield at least level on points and it will be
a seismic occasion. It’s an intriguing prospect and a tantalising one for United and their supporters.
They would also be heading into the game 22 unbeaten on the road domestically, having not lost away from home in this country since losing at Liverpool on January 19 last year. United fans might have breathed a sigh of relief that they weren’t inside Old Trafford to witness their side being picked apart by Tottenham at the start of October, but now they’re missing out on all the unexpected fun.
The Reds haven’t turned for home at the start of a new calendar year this close to the top of the Premier League since Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season eight years ago.
Nobody expected it to happen this season, but that is the situation we’re in.
The roof would have risen off Old Trafford this week if the place was packed, with dreams of a 21st title warming the frozen festive air.
Instead, two massive wins have been played out to the barren sounds of touchline screams and barked instructions.
It’s not how anybody envisaged United’s renaissance.
But forced to watch from home, supporters will be counting down the hours to the next time United play, willing the days away, the kind of thrill and excitement you get when your team is in a title race and, make no mistake, United are in a title race now, and Liverpool know it.