Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might be doing his best to downplay Man United’s hopes of winning the Premier League or being considered as title contenders, but he simply has to accept that they are at this stage.
The trip to Anfield later in January should be huge when it comes assessing United’s title credentials, while it’s also going to be interesting to see how they set up for the game.
United usually try to stink the place out and go for a 0-0 whenever they play one of the elite teams and that might be the tactic again, but it might not be the right one.
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If you sit back and give Liverpool the ball then they will find a way through eventually, while they are having serious issues in defence with injuries so Solskjaer should back his forwards to take the game to Liverpool and score a few goals.
Fabinho has stepped up as a centre back option after the injuries to van Dijk and Gomez so he looks pretty solid when paired with Joel Matip, but he’s also had his own injury issues.
While Liverpool fans may have been fearing the worst going into the game if they had to put out a makeshift defence, it actually turns out that Matip should be fit for the game after The Mirror confirmed he’s set to return in time.
That’s massive for Jurgen Klopp as it allows his team to play without worrying about protecting the defence more than they usually do, and it’s definitely a timely return from their point of view.