Man United v Liverpool

The big one, still. This is never an easy game. You are not going to see scores like 0-5 & 0-7 in a game like this 😁. We have had the perfect start to the season dspite a couple of tricky fixtures. First up was Ipswich, a newly promoted side at their own ground, followed by a difficult team of bruisiers, like Brentford. We came through those two games in pretty good fashion, improving as we went, but against United, we will need to go up yet another notch.

Team: Alisson, TAA, Konate, VVD, Robbo, Gravenberch, MacAllister, Bosz, Diaz, Jota, Salah. I doubt the “Big Cheese” will feature, even on the bench, as we already have Gakpo and Nunez to bolster the front line, if required.

I saw some comments recently about Klopp being too loyal to certain players. I have to say I am not sure he was. Sure, he always backed his players and didn’t criticise them publicly, but I cannot recall an occasion when he made a selection choice solely out of loyalty. I know he was sometimes criticised for not taking off Salah when he wasn’t playing so well, but honestly, who else on the bench was more likely to get a goal out of nothing? He knew his players and how to get the best out of the team. He had constraints to work within and didn’t always get the players he wanted, but publicly he was fiecely loyal and that I think was one of his main strengths, not a weakness. This was the arm round the shoulder of the entire team and was rewarded with performances that were much greater than the sum of its parts. The knock on effect of always backing his players, in terms of morale and the loyalty they returned, was immeasurable imo and a key factor in his and the team’s success.

This should not be taken as a thinly veiled dig at Slot either. Generally, I like what I have seen, though it’s still very early days.