By Alex Bell
Anfield turned up the volume and the footballing world tuned in to one of the biggest fixtures in football. But Public Enemy couldn’t have been more apt… “Don’t Believe the Hype”.
To be fair, the excitement generated by the season so far contributed greatly to the build-up for “Red Monday” – as it was billed on UK’s Sky Sports. The likes of City, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea are all building cases for a strong run at the league.
And this morning it was Ibra v Coutinho, Pogba v Henderson, Jurgen v Jose…you get the gist.
But as is often the case with these two (remember the worst FA Cup final ever in 1996), the end product turned out to be nothing more than turgid fare.
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An increased capacity of 54,000 welcomed United and the atmosphere was palpable. There’s nothing quite like an evening kick-off at Anfield – and a win for Klopp’s men would take them to joint top of the table.
Rumour was that Mourinho would be parking the bus and playing for a draw, but his men started brightly. While Coutinho was shadowed by defensive enforcer Ander Herrera, United kept Liverpool pinned back. But it swiftly became clear that scrappy would be about as good as it would get.
The occasion appeared to get the better of supposedly experienced players. Balls were mis-controlled and passes overhit, with both teams scurrying around like headless chickens, seemingly unable to find any presence or poise on the ball. After the game, Klopp said they weren’t “calm enough” and he was right.
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As a game it was a headline writer’s nightmare, but United goalkeeper David de Gea will probably be most talked about in dispatches. He made two quality saves – palming away a long-range effort from Coutinho in mid-air and somehow getting down to his right to an Emre Can strike.
As for United, a few set-pieces looked dangerous, while Ibrahimovic should have done better with a free header.
And that was your lot. Not a bad point for either side, but not a great advert for the EPL either.
Nothing too much for City manager Pep Guardiola to be concerned about. And if we’ve learned anything, it’s that United are certainly fighting hard for Mourinho and have the best goalkeeper in the world. Also, watch out for that hype-o-meter this weekend, as Jose goes back to Chelsea.
Newshub.
