Liverpool and Manchester United resume hostilities tomorrow. Or rather on field hostilities, as the hostilities for each other never really fades, regardless of fortunes on the pitch.
United have been a bit
of a bogey team for the Reds in recent seasons, including their last two visits to Anfield, both of which ended in disappointing draws for Liverpool. However, Liverpool really need to get back to their winning ways, and United might be the perfect opponent to step their game up.
“At times, they’ve shown a lot of quality,” club captain Virgil van Dijk admitted in an interview with Sky Sports, “But at times, they’ve shown vulnerability, and hopefully that’s something we can exploit.
“We’ve been through phases, especially the years that I’ve been at the club, where we’ve felt we can have them and obviously we drew in the last two seasons. We played away and got knocked out of the FA Cup, which was pretty tough. They are always difficult, we have to be ready for the big fight.”
Indeed, in recent seasons Manchester United have shown up in one of only two modes against Liverpool: fighting tooth and nail or gleefully handing over a paddle to be beaten with. So, in sad eventuality that they’re not on the wrong end of another lopsided scoreline, Liverpool could be in for another tight match tomorrow.
After three consecutive defeats, and several shakey performances before that, Liverpool know they need to improve, which Van Dijk was also quick to point out.
“It’s pretty clear that we have to improve, offensively, defensively, in possession, set-pieces but the matter of fact that in total, we won seven out of 10 and we still have so much to improve.”
Although that is a Moyesian list of things to improve, he’s not wrong to point out that Liverpool have largely found a way to get out of most matches with all three points. In looking at the performances and underlying numbers, it’s not hard to see a world where results start improving with a little more composure on the ball and more clinical finishing.
Tomorrow would be as good of a time as any to put in a performance that this squad is capable of.
