Manchester United v Liverpool - Pre Match Thread

Yeah i know but it still hinders the team in attack thats what i mean, as soon as a team sees that a plan has been created to hinder one of their players they up their game and become more of a threat themselves. Just leave whoever is at LB to mark him out of the game, Mascherano is gonna have his eye on him anyway, we all know how masch plays now, he will have already planned to keep him in check.

I don't think it would hinder the team in attack though, Babel may even have more luck cutting inside as he likes to against Evra, who is very left footed and can look uncomfortable when forced onto his right. Kuyt is equally comfortable playing on the left as he is on the right, and whilst I wouldn't have said either is his best position it seems to be working at the moment with him playing as a wide forward. I don't see how it would limit us in terms of attacking personally.

I don't think it would hinder the team in attack though, Babel may even have more luck cutting inside as he likes to against Evra, who is very left footed and can look uncomfortable when forced onto his right. Kuyt is equally comfortable playing on the left as he is on the right, and whilst I wouldn't have said either is his best position it seems to be working at the moment with him playing as a wide forward. I don't see how it would limit us in terms of attacking personally.

Due to how teams set up when they concentrate on stopping opposition. As Aldo has said
I know Rafa Benitez has said he is not making any special plans to deal with Ronaldo and I agree with that because if you start thinking too much about the opposition you can lose sight of your own qualities.

I know what you mean but i think the best thing to do is to stick with the same players in the same positions, Babel on the left the whole point is for him to cut in and shoot he can't do that on the right, and i think kuyt looks better on the right crossing with his right rather than being on the left he will have to go back before delivering the final ball with his right unless he's gonna be hitting trivela's all game.

Yeah, let's not make the mistake of under or over estimating Ronaldo. Just because he tends to go missing against top sides doesn't mean he will tomorrow. Also, just becuase he is Utd's biggest threat doesn't mean we should forget about the 10 other players in the team.

I agree with Eddie about playing to our strengths as opposed to containing the opposition. Unfortunately, that's how Rafa likes to play the big sides. So far it's yet to work against Utd.

I feel set pieces could be the way for Utd in this game. It's still by far the weakest part of our game both attacking and defending.

This stat is quite shocking:

Liverpool have failed to score in their last six Premier League matches with United. The only league goal accredited to them against the Red Devils under Rafa Benitez was an own goal from John O'Shea, in the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford on 20 September 2004.

Let's do something about that.

           

What Rafa says to the press and what he actually does are two completely different things, mark my words he will have their strengths in mind too, it would be foolhardy not to. There is a big difference between setting up to stop a player and tweaking your tactics to better deal with a potential threat, I am suggesting we do the latter. I'm not saying we concentrate on stopping them, I want to see us go there with an attacking mentality, but we are obviously going to be on the defensive in some stages of the game with our wide men dropping back at those times and I would feel more confident in Kuyt being of some use against Ronaldo than Babel when this happens. I don't want to see any change in the mentality of how we approach the game from the way we've played in recent weeks, the gameplan is working lately, I just think for this game the same personel in different positions would serve us better.

I see where your coming from i just think adjusting to suit their threat would leave us being outplayed. Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, Whoever plays left wing, Anderson will all need stopping, stopping them we wont attack much.

When we played them at anfield earlier in the season they concentrated heavily on stopping gerrard and torres and we controlled large parts of the game. I cant see babel causing too many problems on the right, Evra is extremely left footed but babel is the same with his right which suits evra alot. I think kuyt trying to stop ronaldo would work buttt the whole point of the 4-2-3-1 is that we break up their play and counter in numbers, the front four are the top players in this and with kuyt winning the ball back from ronaldo he doesnt have the pace to get up the field along with gerrard torres and babels pace.

I see what you mean but i think rafa will get it right, he didnt put any added emphasis on stopping any particular player at anfield and thy didnt do anything special they just scored from bad defending.

Our mentality to this game will be better if the Man U team spend most of their playing time trying to defend against us. I don't see our winning streak taking a pause then resuming with Everton, I see us continue our winning streak with tomorrow's game.

All that matters is a win! A draw is not good enough.

I see where your coming from i just think adjusting to suit their threat would leave us being outplayed. Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, Whoever plays left wing, Anderson will all need stopping, stopping them we wont attack much.

When we played them at anfield earlier in the season they concentrated heavily on stopping gerrard and torres and we controlled large parts of the game. I cant see babel causing too many problems on the right, Evra is extremely left footed but babel is the same with his right which suits evra alot. I think kuyt trying to stop ronaldo would work buttt the whole point of the 4-2-3-1 is that we break up their play and counter in numbers, the front four are the top players in this and with kuyt winning the ball back from ronaldo he doesnt have the pace to get up the field along with gerrard torres and babels pace.

I see what you mean but i think rafa will get it right, he didnt put any added emphasis on stopping any particular player at anfield and thy didnt do anything special they just scored from bad defending.

I think you're missing my point, as you're still talking about us changing our mentality for this game. I'm not saying we make any extra effort to stop any one player or change any tactics with their strengths in mind, just simply switch two players positions for his one, nothing more than that. You're point about Kuyt not having the pace to get back up the pitch when he's won the ball back is a valid one, but it's an unavoidable fact that during some sections of the game he is going to be dropping back regardless of whether he plays on the left or the right so I wouldn't say that makes a case for him not playing on the left. You also point out that Babel is very right footed, which again I agree with but don't see that as a weakness for us if Babel plays on the right. For Evra to take advantage of this fact he would have to put Babel on his left foot when running at him, which in turn would put him on his own weaker foot. TBH I feel the gain made by switching Kuyt & Babel would only be very minimal, but it's these little things that can win games. My opinion is it would benefit us, guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

***EXCLUSIVE*** Two Utd players out - Behind the scenes footage.

 

Too much time on your hands Eddie.

***EXCLUSIVE*** Two Utd players out - Behind the scenes footage.

Quality is that your only source or can the story be verified elsewhere 

i would love to win by a last minute controversial goal an offside, handball, for me it would the dogs bollocks!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/7298257.stm


Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand is set to miss out again with a back injury but keeper Edwin Van der Sar could return after a back injury.

Gerard Pique may continue in place of Ferdinand while striker Louis Saha is expected to shake off a knock.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has no new injury worries so he could field the same side that beat Reading.

However, he could opt to use the experienced John Arne Riise in midfield ahead of Ryan Babel.

Now they'll say they lost because their Rock of Gibraltar, Ferdinand was out injured.

***EXCLUSIVE*** Two Utd players out - Behind the scenes footage.

Brilliant that Eddie............made me 

***EXCLUSIVE*** Two Utd players out - Behind the scenes footage.

 

Class Edward old chap very good indeed old boy.

I know that it's gonna be a difficult game tomrrow but i'm optimistic about tomorrow's match cuz when i see the names in the squad i'm like " if rafa plays it right we can win the 3 points easily "

1- please no mistakes in defence especially in fouls and corners cuz we were playing well recently so we weren't concentrating on the defence ... so please no mistakes.

2- mascherano is our key tomorrow i think rafa will give him the mission by playing man-to-man with ronaldo so we will see him playing more at the left side. i hope after the match mascherano says " mission complete "

3- alonso will have another mission by building up a triangle with gerrard and the wingers and hey will tire man utd if they work succesfully.

i think rafa is gonna start with the usual formation in the last matches ... GOOD LUCK

I actually think solodee is right, just look at whenever he plays the top 4 teams hes like quaresma was against us in the second leg of lfc porto. He goes missing. When you make a gameplan to stop one specific player that is when you slip up and lose, we never normally make plans to stop one specific player so why start now.

Yes but look at the damage Quaresma was causing us in portugal

Many valids points has been made already. Things for sure are, we WILL have to take our chances because I don't think we will have lot's of them and we WILL have to keep an eye on Ronaldo. He is not the only threat yes, but you cannot not taking in consideration his recent form and goal scoring numbers, the lad is talented end off.
We will have to be very aware and alert on the back and not giving free kicks in dangerous positions. We WILL have to be present in any aerial duels, set of plays where we conceded far too many goals this season.

e have the weapon and experience to win that kind of game, let's not blowing it up. Like many of you have said already, if thinking that we will outplay completely man u, wake up, that will be a scrappy game with lot's of tackles and attitude. The man of the match will have to be the ref, if he can't handle the pressure we will play 11 against 12. Everything is possible, come on reds men!

I think that if arbeloa plays then he will be the one that marks ronaldo becuase he marked messi out of the game in both legs of champions league last season so i think he would deal with ronaldo.

back 4

arbelo, aurelio, carragher, skrtel.

is torres going to be fit on sunday?

is torres going to be fit on sunday?

yeah his gonna be a fit, so don't worry

The scum always score 30mins into injury time but not this time we will win and I think it"l be by a bigger margin than expected. Torres is player of the moment first season and spanish scoring 27 goal best in world hands down 

Yes but look at the damage Quaresma was causing us in portugal

True but when you look at his impact on the scoreline its next to nothing