Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has already been appointed the permanent manager of Manchester United, at least by Jurgen Klopp. It’s clear he will be there next year, said Liverpool’s coach, winking furiously. Pre-match propaganda of the most obvious kind designed to disrupt and disturb ahead of English football’s lodestar fixture or the wisdom of a man who knows?
It is unlikely to trouble Solskjaer either way since he avoids all pre-match logorrhea and expects rival managers to give his musings the same wide berth. That said, and though the sample remains small, with each passing fixture Solskjaer makes it harder for the United board to look elsewhere. And should he make it 11 wins in 13 matches against Liverpool of all teams you would have to say the post is Solskjaer’s to lose.
Shortcomings
The one blob on his card is the home defeat to PSG in the Champions League. There was little in it for half an hour but by increments PSG began to set the agenda via the feet of world class footballers in pivotal positions.
Read more: The Manchester United weak links exposed in defeat to PSG
What the defeat exposed was not only the shortcomings in United’s squad when faced with the likes of Thiago Silva in defence, Marquinhos and Verratti in midfield and Kylian Mbappe everywhere, but also the lack of big match nouse. United tried just a bit too hard to be the big dog in the fight, to lay out their legacy credentials. PSG just laughed, absorbed United’s schoolboy enthusiasms, locked down their top man then pulled away.
United’s response in the FA Cup fifth round at Chelsea, like the performance in the previous round at Arsenal was hugely encouraging. The challenge now is to take that forward into a contest that constitutes the higher ground towards which Solskjaer is pointing United. Liverpool, who dispatched a full strength PSG at Anfield in the group stages of the Champions League and dominated possession in the return match in Paris, represent the next level, a club side fully evolved and stacked with big-match talent.
Critical juncture
Germany’s signature club and serial Champions League semi-finalists Bayern Munich celebrated Tuesday’s goalless draw at Anfield as if it were a triumph. To stop Liverpool scoring, to take the heat out of the game was straight out of the underdog’s playbook. That is how far Liverpool have come. They arrive at Old Trafford at a critical juncture, seeking the victory that would re-establish a three-point cushion to Manchester City in the race for the title.
Since the turn of the year we have seen a shift in dynamic at the top of the league, which adds still further to the significance of the United fixture. The Anfield goal rush has slowed to a trickle. Since the 5-1 evisceration of Arsenal in the last game of 2018, Liverpool have scored one or fewer in six of their eight games, winning only three. City, by comparison, have never been more fecund. In 13 matches this year in all competitions City have plundered 49 goals, including a 9, 7, 6, 5, 4 and four 3s, the latest coming in the comeback win against Schalke.
Pressure moments
We can see the direction of travel. With City otherwise engaged this weekend aiming to notch the first pot of the notional quadruple, this is Liverpool’s opportunity to strike, and to demonstrate that they have the mettle to handle pressure moments. Back in December when the winning was easy Liverpool ended Jose Mourinho’s reign of torpor at United with a coruscating victory at Anfield. None thought then that the return fixture two months hence would have any consequence for United other than the opportunity to kibosh Liverpool’s title dream. Yet here they are chasing three points to tighten their hold on fourth place.
That England’s power couple come together with so much at stake renders the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, well, the Carabao Cup final, a match noteworthy only for City’s involvement as they chase down that unprecedented quad.
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