Arne Slot has revealed how Rúben Amorim could set up Manchester United to beat Liverpool at Anfield, and one of the club’s current unpopular defenders could become key.
Manchester United’s mood during the October international break is certainly a step in the right direction compared to the one in September, with a 2-0 win against Sunderland at Old Trafford securing a much-needed three points.
Mason Mount grabbed his first goal of the season while new signing Benjamin Šeško netted his second, with Senne Lammens making his debut in goal and keeping the club’s first clean sheet of the season.
However, a much tougher test awaits the Reds in a little under two weeks, with Rúben Amorim preparing his side to face Liverpool at Anfield once domestic football returns.
United have not won at Anfield since January 2016, when a late strike from Wayne Rooney split the difference between the two sides under Louis van Gaal.
Slot has told Amorim how to win at Anfield
Liverpool won their first five Premier League fixtures this campaign, but have since lost their last three across all competitions against Crystal Palace, Galatasaray, and Chelsea.
All of Liveprool’s initial wins this season across domestic competitions came with late winning goals, but it seems as if their luck quickly ran out. An alarming fixture that raised questions surrounding Liverpool was a 3-2 win over Newcastle.
Despite holding a 2-0 lead and being a man up with around an hour to play, Liverpool let Eddie Howe’s men climb back to 2-2 and needed a winning goal from youth talent Rio Ngumoha in the 90+10th minute to seal the three points.
After the game, Slot complained that he felt he did not watch a game of football due to the long throws and set pieces – accidentally letting slip that he thought his Liverpool team could not cope with the direct style of play.
“I’m not too sure if I saw a football match,” Slot said after the game in late August. “It was set-piece after set-piece, long throws. It didn’t have a lot to do with tactics. But I liked a lot how we stood strong.”
The ‘standing strong’ point is particularly interesting, considering that his side conceded two goals in 25 minutes once they had their backs against the wall, despite having an extra man on the field due to Anthony Gordon’s red card.
Amorim already preparing for Liverpool fixture?
One notable tactic that United deployed in their win against Sunderland was playing very direct football, with Lammens often going long to find Šeško up front, and United then dealing with the ball from there.
This was something Mount pointed out after the game. “Any danger of them pressing, he puts it into Ben, and we work off that,” the English midfielder said of Lammens after the game. “I think he [Lammens] kind of released the pressure a lot today.”
Whether this was a pure coincidence or a purposeful 90 minutes of practice, the way United played against Sunderland followed a similar blueprint to what Slot mentioned he disliked during the Newcastle game last month.
Another interesting point of note is Slot’s mention of long throws. Šeško’s goal against Sunderland came as a direct consequence of Diogo Dalot’s hurling the ball into the opposition’s box, with the striker pouncing on a flick-on to hand United their second and final goal of the game.
Dalot is not currently the most popular of United’s players, with critics feeling he does not suit the mould of a wing-back. However, if Amorim wants to utilise the 26-year-old’s clear long-throw skill at Anfield in two weeks, Dalot could become an essential part of the game plan.
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