Man Utd vs Liverpool

Rory Fitzgerald · January 6, 2013

The league's top 2 goalscorers go head to head - 16 goals vs 15 goals.

The 10 game form guide;

Man Utd: W8 D1 L1

Liverpool: W4 D4 L2

Their home record is excellent with a record of W9 D0 L1 (Spurs of all teams were the team not to roll over). Of the 10 home games this season though they have only kept 3 clean sheets (5 overall in 21 games). The flip side is that in 9 of those 10 games they have scored at least 2 goals !! and the other was just 1 i.e. they have scored in every home league game this season.

Our away record is W3 D4 L3. We have 2 clean sheets away from home.

Their last defeat in the league was on 17-Nov-12 when they lost 1-0 away to Norwich.

The last 5 meetings at Old Trafford in the league has seen them win 4 and us 1.

United's points tally so far is impressive as only 4 teams in the past 21 years have won 52pts by the 21st game. That said, its their 2nd worst defensive record after as many games with 28 conceded.

Of their 21 games, the most common score has been winning 3-2 as they have won 25% of their games by this scoreline though only 1 of those wins was at Old Trafford. Its a remarkable recurrance. There have only been 10 games with a scoreline of 3-2 this season and Utd have been involved in 6 of them - winning 5 and losing 1.

There has been no consistency in the United team in the past 4 league games as Ferguson has rotated the team with only 5 players starting in all those 4 games. Wayne Rooney has missed the past 3 games since Swansea and Ferguson CLAIMS he will miss Liverpool - smells like the usual siht he pulls before a game with us.

bold = Played all 4

Italic = Played 3 of last 4

De Gea*

Rafael* Evans* Ferdinand Evra

Valencia Cleverley* Carrick Young

Van Persie Hernandez*

* Played in FA Cup

RB position has rotated between Rafael, Smalling and Jones recently.

Evans has been partnered by Ferdinand (2) and Vidic (2) in the last 4.

Giggs played the last game at Wigan but Valencia played the previous 3.

Our Approach ?

Irrespective of set up, someone needs to sit on Carrick. Play Henderson and given he is the further forward of the midfield these days, he'd be ideal to pressure Carrick. Try make them force play through Cleverley as much as possible.

United score plenty but they concede a few too. I think we need to go there and try to get at them rather than sitting back with a 3 man back line. 2 questions Allen or Henderson and if Sturridge plays, how is he lining Suarez and Sturridge up i.e. will one be told to naturally drift wide. I'd go with

Reina

Wisdom Skrtel Agger Johnson

Gerrard Lucas Henderson

Sturridge Suarez Sterling

(A variation could be 4-3-1-2. Rest Sterling and play Gerrard ahead of a 3 man midfield and just behind Suarez and Sturridge - he could naturally sit on Carrick in this position. The midfield could even play as a diamond with Henderson and Allen as the runners and Lucas more disciplined. However, it could put pressure on the full backs to provide width and leave us exposed).

Positives: The United defence is there to be got at and plenty have teams done that so by playing an attacking trio that has some pace, skill and full of confidence, we could get behind them when their attacks break down.

Negatives: We put Wisdom in against the best attack in the league with little cover ahead of him. The set up takes no account of Utd being the best attacking team in the league in terms of our defensive set up. It could also be the 1st time we try a front line with Suarez & Sturridge and teething problems are not something you want to be fighting as well at Old Trafford.

Approach would be to play our own game and look to cause them as much trouble as possible. We are likely to concede but they are not rock solid so our best form of defence looks like being ball retention and trying to expose them in defence.

Spoiler hides a possible 5-3-2 set up.

There is no getting away from the fact that we also have a weak underbelly. If we are to be conservative and go 5-3-2, we could go as follows;

Reina

Johnson Skrtel Carra Agger Downing

Gerrard Lucas Henderson

Suarez Sturridge

Positives: We reduce the space in the channels for United to attack us between and affords a little more cover to the full back. It also puts Suarez & Sturridge in more central positions and both are players that are not shy about running straight at goal with ability to beat a man if a chance presents itself on the break.

Negatives: No natural width higher up the pitch is an open invitation for their full backs to overlap even more. Downing could be up against Valencia which would be scary.

Approach would be very much counter attacking in nature

PaddyPower prices the game as follows;

Utd win 3/4

Draw 5/2

Liverpool 15/4

Oh, I almost forgot, let's f***ing batter these !!

RBM · January 6, 2013

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