Manchester United vs. Liverpool: Areas Where the Tie Will Be Won and Lost
Manchester United vs. Liverpool should be a tie that sets the pulse racing, but after the comfortable 2-0 home-leg win for Jurgen Klopp's side, can Louis van Gaal really engineer a comeback win to keep United's European adventures alive?
The German can afford to be confident given his side's first-leg dominance and the 2-0 cushion, but Van Gaal will surely be desperate to restore some hope at Old Trafford by overturning the loss.
If he is to do so, these are the areas where he and his side will have to best Klopp's men in the UEFA Europa League round-of-16 return leg on Thursday.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
The Dugout
Speaking of Van Gaal and Klopp, the first battle to be won is between the two managers, who took markedly different approaches in the build-up to the first leg.
The former Borussia Dortmund manager called it "the mother of all games," per Sky Sports.
But United boss Van Gaal said, per Chris Wheeler of MailOnline:
"It is big that we have lost to West Brom but if we win against Liverpool I am not more happy than if we had won against West Brom.
For the fans and the environment it is big, but for me we have to win every game. If we had won against West Brom I'd have been very pleased.
"
It is perhaps reductive to suggest that the attitudes of the two managers were evident in their teams at Anfield last Thursday evening.
However, given Liverpool looked sharper—pressing energetically and frantically denying United space to play—perhaps the fact that one manager had publicly downplayed the importance of the game and the other had made it seem like a matter of life and death had some bearing on proceedings.
In a more direct and tangible way, the two managers most definitely had a bearing on the game. Van Gaal inexplicably picked a central midfield of Marouane Fellaini and Morgan Schneiderlin in spite of having Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera and Bastian Schweinsteiger available to him.
To select a player who struggles in possession as part of the central midfield linchpin of a side designed either to keep the ball or quickly distribute it to more creative players further up the pitch was an error.
To do so against a side whose whole raison d'etre when out of possession is dynamic and high-intensity pressing was an error of catastrophic proportions.
Van Gaal then compounded that mistake by inexplicably switching to a back three with Carrick at its heart. There was a brief period where this allowed United to gain some measure of control of the ball—they enjoyed 61.2 per cent possession between the 50- and 60-minute marks.
Klopp, though, reacted smartly, bringing on Joe Allen at the 63-minute mark and switching to a 4-3-3. From then until the end of the game, Liverpool had 51 per cent of possession, had five shots to United's one and scored the second goal, thanks in large part to a Carrick error.
So Van Gaal got his pre-match tactics wrong, and Klopp was able to effectively counter any upper hand the Dutchman had wrested back during the game.
The dugout battle had a clear winner in the first leg. It will be crucial again in the second.
The Heart of the Battle: Central Midfield
The centre of midfield was an important battleground at Anfield, and it was a clash Liverpool comprehensively won.
Emre Can and Jordan Henderson made four tackles each—more than any United player, in spite of the fact that Liverpool edged possession. Their defensive contribution was matched by their use of the ball. Can made 68 passes, completing 85.3 per cent of them, Henderson found a Liverpool player with 85.5 per cent of his 69 passes.
On the other hand, Fellaini completed just 73.2 per cent of his 41 passes—with just eight successful passes in the first half.
Schneiderlin was safer with the ball, giving it away with less than 13 per cent of his attempted passes, but he attempted just 39—30 fewer than Henderson.
Can and Henderson also gave away just three fouls between them, where Fellaini committed six and Schneiderlin four. Perhaps United fans could cry home-field advantage in that particular statistic, but in truth, it was reflective of how dominant Liverpool's midfield were.
Van Gaal got the balance of his midfield wrong, and he did little to correct it. It was unsurprising that Liverpool so thoroughly won that particular battle. United will have to be better on Thursday.
In order to do so, they do have options. Schweinsteiger made a positive impression on the game when he came on as a substitute against West Ham United, though doubts remain as to his ability to sustain much in the way of attacking contribution for 90 minutes.
Herrera is not enjoying the best form, but he can be an attacking threat as well as being prepared to share in the defensive burden. Unfortunately for United fans, Van Gaal was bizarrely fulsome in his praise of Fellaini after both the Liverpool game and the subsequent FA Cup draw with West Ham.
Per David Wright of the Daily Express, Van Gaal said after the Liverpool defeat: "I have to say that Fellaini was one of the best players on the pitch," per the Express.
Per Sky Sports, the Dutchman said after the draw with West Ham: "I think Fellaini played a good match again. He performed well in our game plan."
With two bouts of public praise after the past two games, it would not be a shock to see the Belgium international start again, stultifying United's midfield as he has done so many times this season.
The Flanks
This was another battle Liverpool won at Anfield, both in terms of wingers making their presence felt and defenders shutting down the opposition.
For United, Marcus Rashford and Memphis Depay managed one key pass each. Adam Lallana made four, with another added by Phillipe Coutinho and three more by Roberto Firmino, who played centrally but often drifted wide.
The numbers are equally skewed towards Liverpool when it comes to the defensive contributions of both sets of full-backs. Guillermo Varela made three tackles and two interceptions.
Marco Rojo made neither a tackle nor an interception during the first 45 minutes when he played full-back. Daley Blind made all three of his tackles in the first half when playing at centre-back, though he did make his two interceptions for the game in the second half when playing at left wing-back.
For Nathaniel Clyne, those numbers were six and three, and it was five and four for Alberto Moreno.
Thus Liverpool won both the defensive and attacking battles from the flanks. Numbers never tell the full story of a match, but here they serve to illustrate just how thoroughly Klopp's side dominated the game.
The managers will have to get their approach right, both on and off the pitch. Van Gaal faces a huge task, and it is hard to have much confidence in him getting it right, such has been the pattern of the season so far.
Klopp has endured mixed fortunes since he took charge of Liverpool, but this would be an enormous boost for his project that—as things stand—looks a good deal more promising than Van Gaal's.
If the German can engineer another win in these key battlegrounds, Liverpool will be in a strong position to progress to the next round.
All advanced statistics per WhoScored.com.
