In the midst of a heatwave, the wisdom of Erik ten Hag instructing his players to run 13.8km – the distance by which his team had been out-run – the day after their 4-0 humiliation at Brentford summed up his predicament. This is a manager who does not have time and who needs desperate measures to bring about results.
Against Liverpool, the contentious calls paid off. If you were to ask Piers Morgan, and nobody really did, he demanded Ten Hag were “fired for this alone” when he benched Cristiano Ronaldo. Captain Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw were also dropped – and look what a difference it made.
Ultimately, though, Ten Hag wanted a shift in attitude. Whoever the XI, whatever was going on in the stands on a night of unrest against the Glazers, he would not have his men out-fought or out-thought again.
“We can talk about tactical, but it’s all about attitude,” he said in his post-match interview on Sky Sports .
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“Now you see, you bring attitude on the pitch, there was communication, there was fighting spirit, especially there was a team. You can see what they can achieve. They can f***ing good play football.”
It prompted an apology from presenter Dave Jones for the industrial language, but Ten Hag is no longer the dejected dead-man-walking of the opening two weekends.
United had his tendency under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, of course, to wrestle back a semblance of dignity when it looked to have evaporated entirely.
Thus it was that the manager ushered a word of caution.
“We have to bring it in every game, this organisation and this intensity.”
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Ellen White should be talked about as an England icon like Rooney and Kane22 August, 2022Jurgen Klopp, meanwhile, had no complaints – despite a couple of close calls from Michael Oliver. Marcus Rashford’s goal would have been deemed offside by VAR two seasons ago, but the greater leniency installed since then allowed the goal to stand.
Bruno Fernandes also avoided a second yellow card for delaying the start of play, holding onto the ball after Salah’s consolation strike when he was already on a booking.
However, speaking to BBC Sport Klopp conceded: “I don’t have a lot of arguments, we lost the game. On another day, with more conviction about what we are doing we can turn it around. That is how it is.
“To play the football we are able to play. We want to fight. We have a good home game on Saturday and Anfield has to be rocking. We have to set the fire and the rhythm.
“We will try absolutely everything that every Liverpool supporter will expect, we will fight for our lives.”
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