Manchester United set out with a clear tactical brief to target Liverpool\u2019s fullbacks and it paid off as they ended a run without victory at Anfield that stretched back to 2016. Matthijs de Ligt said the instructions were focused and precise after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that Liverpool had weaknesses, and that\u2019s their fullbacks,\u201d De Ligt revealed to Viaplay after the match. \u201cWe were all really hyped, and the focus was very high. Today was a game that you really have to be concentrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decisive sequence began when Bruno Fernandes funnelled the ball out to Amad Diallo on the wing, where he was met by a timid Kerkez. Van Dijk trotted back into position, half-heartedly pointed over his shoulder at the blur of white sprinting between himself and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9. Bryan Mbeumo finished through a weak Giorgi Mamardashvili and Liverpool\u2019s defence were left to look around at each other in shock.<\/p>\n
Kerkez never got to grips with the double act of Amad and Mbeumo. Liverpool\u2019s summer recruit from Bournemouth has endured a testing start to his Anfield career and offered little reassurance on Sunday. Such was Van Dijk\u2019s frustration with the left back that, after inadvertently kicking the ball into Kerkez\u2019s face, it was the Dutch captain who demanded an apology.<\/p>\n
Conor Bradley was less troubled on the opposite flank, largely because Mason Mount was more likely to tuck infield rather than dribble at him like Mbeumo. Matheus Cunha operated as a roving forward and created disruption across the backline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the characteristic of the game change the way we approach it,\u201d United head coach Ruben Amorim explained. \u201cCunha in the middle, if we put Ben [\u0160e\u0161ko] it is easier for this kind of centre backs to control our striker. This kind of game, when we win, the coach is so smart and when we lose, the problem is the manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruno Fernandes reflected on the crowd and the approach: \u201cWe knew that we had to win our duels. In the first 10 minutes, we knew they would try to start the game very strongly,\u201d United\u2019s skipper outlined to BBC Sport. \u201cAlso, in the first half, we understood that they were under pressure when they had time on the ball, the fans were putting them in a difficult position and booing for them to play quicker. We wanted to slow their game, and we knew that would give massive spaces around the middle. In the second half, we could have played a little bit more on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
De Ligt says United targeted Liverpool fullbacks; Amad and Mbeumo exposed Anfield weakness. on Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1083],"tags":[1021,342,260],"class_list":["post-3923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-man-utd","tag-amorim","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-bryan-mbeumo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}