HERE’S WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON!
They were keen on Klopp before he joined rivals. Now reality bites for United…
THE hardest thing for Manchester United when it comes to encounters with Liverpool these days is that they bring them face to face with everything they could have had.
Like everybody else across Europe, United were aware of Jurgen Klopp’s star rising unstoppably through German football a decade ago. Like everybody else, they wondered if, one day, he would prove a good fit for them.
He would have, too, but the fact is that Liverpool’s subsequent sell to Klopp was better both in substance and timing than United’s had been, proof perhaps that they had stolen a march on their great rivals even before the evidence started to appear on the field.
Liverpool’s current status as English champions- elect hardens with each passing week and victory. United?
Well, the very best we can say about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team is that they can be occasionally effective.
Solskjaer and United’s committed travelling support must hope tomorrow turns out to be one of those better days.
United are, strange as it sounds, the only team to have taken a point from Liverpool in the Premier League this season — courtesy of a 1-1 draw last October — and these days such occasional, fleeting returns to relevance are all that English football’s fallen titans have to play for.
If that sounds rather stark then it should. United, for all Solskjaer’s talk of small progress, continue to drift while Liverpool surge forwards.
Klopp suggested on Friday that Liverpool cannot hope to dominate over a period of years like United did under Sir Alex Ferguson or indeed Liverpool prior to their last title win in 1990.
The quality of the Premier League is just too high, was the argument.
Yet United never started a season with 20 wins from 21 games. Nobody did.
Liverpool should win this season’s edition by an enormous margin. If Klopp really isn’t thinking ‘monopoly’ as he looks into the future then other people at Anfield will be.
‘To be honest, I don’t think it is possible to get to United’s level of dominance ever again,’ said Klopp.
‘We have made a few good decisions and that is why we have got better. And our players are getting better — that is why we are coming up.
‘But it is now more likely that the other clubs will compete for different things because of the financial power of a lot of teams.
‘I wouldn’t say United won a lot of games 4-0 or 5-0 but they were predicted wins, and that is clear.
‘We won a lot of games 1-0 or 2-1 and had to really dig in properly to do so, so I don’t see this type of thing.
‘But it is important that we can fight every year for it and that is all I need.’
Earlier this season, Klopp shared a charity dinner table with Ferguson and former United captains Ryan Giggs and Bryan Robson.
‘It was just a really nice night,’ said Klopp. ‘Time flew and it was all good.
‘When I first met Fergie he was Sir Alex Ferguson to me! Unbelievable. I had never met him before but as manager of
Dortmund, t dh he was great tt to me. We had hd a super conversation. From that moment, we were kind of in contact.’
Ferguson is exasperated by much that has happened since he stepped down as manager after winning United’s 20th league title in 2013.
The Scot was no stranger to counterattacking football during his days in charge but to see United so reactive and passive these days is known to particularly disappoint him.
The issue came to the surface ahead of this game after Solskjaer was reminded of Klopp’s comments following October’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. United were two or three minutes from winning that game but still Klopp said that Solskjaer’s team ‘just defend’. On Friday, he was unrepentant. ‘It is just a description of the situation,’ he said.
To an extent it is. United do struggle to control games with possession, often conceding territory and control of the ball. But on their day, they are dangerous when they break. That is their greatest chance of taking something from tomorrow’s game.
The absence of Marcus Rashford — struggling with injury — would neuter United a little but Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood and Daniel James are also effective when in flight.
‘We respect them a lot and they are not only a counter-attacking team,’ said Klopp. ‘But the difference between playing at Old Trafford and Anfield is massive and we want to show that.
‘The better the opponent, the more consistent you have to be, and this game asks us for perfection. If you lose the ball in the wrong moment, the train starts going! It’s up to us to make sure that will not happen.’
Klopp was on powerful form on Friday at Melwood. His seven-minute, 1,200-word broadside at FIFA about the rescheduling of the Africa Cup of Nations should be typed up and sent to every football supporter in the country.
At last, somebody is prepared to make a stand regarding the ongoing mutilation of the worldwide football calendar by those who are actually charged with looking after the game.
It was a confident, assured and passionate address and indicative of Klopp’s growing stature and standing in the game. European champion, world champion and soon to be Premier League champion. It can do wonders for a man.
Compare that to Solskjaer’s rather more cautious, deferential utterings from the other end of the East Lancs and you have a snapshot of the two clubs at this time.
One with its chest out, the other more inclined to close the door, lock the windows and hope that the bad times will simply go away on their own.
Liverpool grabbed hold of their destiny when they made their pitch to Klopp. United have merely been caught in the backdraft.