The matches are back with brilliant European brands.
For England football fans, the season has indeed begun. The first brilliant pre-season match took place, which could immediately attract enormous attention. Ever since Manchester United and Liverpool have met, matches including in any tournament and in any state remain principled and attractive.
Furthermore, the interest was due to the fact that for United it was the first game under the guidance of Erik ten Hag, without the ghost of Cristiano Ronaldo. And it was interesting to see where Liverpool are heading, who almost reached the top last season, and now have to try not to lower the bar. In general, the Bangkok meeting promised a lot of interesting things. But with an understandable and inevitable caveat that this is just a preseason game, and the first.
So all conclusions based on what he saw can only be considered superficial, but you can at least be happy for the return of great football to those who missed it. Also in this format. Especially considering that the teams did not hold back and tried to make the most of the friendly, playing in a spectacular, intense way, albeit with inevitable flaws. So what could be seen?
Let’s move on to pressure
Of course, the main thing that draws attention is the score. Even for a preseason game, he’s somehow indecently big, not conducive to a team that was stronger at the end of last season. Liverpool lost 0-4 and conceded three goals in the first half. Let’s start with the positive in action Manchester United. Signs of the players’ confidence in ten Hag’s philosophy and methodology began to appear, and they practiced closely for a week or two. It is already clear how some developments are trying to be implemented in the game.
Rangnick eventually admitted last season that United were not in the best shape to play the urgent match. But if you look at this pre-season bout then there has been some serious progress. Martial, who cannot be suspected of being overzealous on defense, has also done his best since he returned from loan. It was he who put pressure on the opponent in the 33rd minute, intercepted the ball and rushed to the gate to score a goal, which he did. And he rushed into the selection in the sweltering heat, training all the time allotted to him.
And in general the players Manchester United he moved much more aggressively and confidently. It is clear that it will take some time to refine the proposed style in order to establish the interaction, but the direction is already visible. As you can see, the urge to play only forward. The players directly looked for options for the development of combinations only for the gates of others, without tightening the rubber with cross rolling. We will also take note to ourselves and follow the progress in this regard.
Not just Ronaldo
When Cristiano returned to Manchester United, everyone in the club was held hostage. On the one hand, the return of the legend and the scorer, on the other hand the too much attention to the Portuguese, as a result of which teamwork could be affected. Ronaldo did not participate in this game and the team proved that the 24 goals scored by him last season can be easily distributed among the other players. Sancho, Fred, Martial and Pellistri each scored a goal.
Rashford also had a great moment in the first half but missed it. Sure, Manchester would benefit from a strong goalscorer, but other players need to develop confidence and a desire for goals, so from that point of view, the match has certainly benefited the team spirit.
Liverpool have their own goals
Before ten o’clock Manchester United and Klopp faces several challenges this stage of the pre-season at Liverpool. The former needs to build something new, look for a scheme and a philosophy that will bring the collapsed giant back to its feet. The latter just needs to smoothly introduce his flagship team into the season by adding a few new figures to the roster and displaying these same figures from his own reserves.
Hence the difference in approach, which was expressed at least in the system of substitutions. Manchester United in fact, he played with two teams, and Liverpool with three, and each had thirty minutes on the pitch. In the end, by the way, everyone missed and the first team even twice: it wasn’t very strong, while United created more powerful combinations at the beginning.
Of course, Liverpool, even with these “own tasks”, would not want to lose Manchester United with a score of 0: 4. Even in a friendly match. But too much importance should not be attached to the result. It is unlikely that anyone after such a defeat would doubt that Liverpool will be one of the dominant forces in Europe next season.
new possibility
We have already said above that Martial, having returned from the loan, has shown himself well, feeling that he can return to the team from the category of dismissed. The same can be said for defender Eric Bailly, who appeared to be in an even worse position, as in the center Manchester United there are Varane, Maguire and Lindelof, as well as attempts to sign Lisandro Martinez from Ajax.
But it seems that Bayi also wants to show ten Hagu: it is not for nothing that United once paid 30 million pounds for him at Villarreal. When Manchester’s second weakest line-up came under pressure from a fresher and stronger mix of Liverpool players, Eric excelled in the last line of defense, playing with solidity and attention – a rigorous ten Hag discipline must have appreciated. . One of his interceptions led to United’s fourth goal.
All in all, Bailly gave the impression of a player who shouldn’t be canceled right now. In a similar position, many players turned out to be proving everything from scratch Manchester United, and some have had to rehabilitate not in front of the coaches, but in front of the fans. But it was different for everyone.
Presentation for beginners
Liverpool, on the other hand, were busy building important new links into their perfectly functioning mechanism. Obviously the most anticipated was Darwin Nunez’s debut. And he entered the field, but in the last squad, when Liverpool were already losing with the score of 0: 3. But Klopp sent him Salah, Trent, Robertson, Fabinho, Alcantara as a partner in the same slot.
In general, Darwin may have felt himself in a decent environment and with a good chance of beating the score ever since Manchester United on the contrary, the formation was weakened by the substitutions, freeing the boys “to try the pen”. Darwin had a great chance to score when the ball hit the post from Salah’s shot, but Nunez ended up on the side of the goal.
Liverpool can only hope that the former Benfica player will swing and join the match as former Porto player Luis Diaz after the transfer in January. Here Diaz was also beautiful here, even the public met him in a special way when he received the ball. True, he didn’t even manage to stand out. But he still will be.
