On Sunday, Manchester United host second place Liverpool in league play for the second of the two northwest England rivalry clashes. However, it’s the team lower in the table who’s possessing more momentum as we head into the January 15th grudge match.
Across all competitions, United have now won nine in a row, and haven’t been beaten in their last 15. Meanwhile on the other side, the Reds fell 1-0 to Southampton in the first leg of a EFL Cup semifinal, and now find themselves winless in their last three.
Liverpool are dealing with a really congested January schedule right now.
LFC really could have easily lost tonight’s clash 2-0 or 3-0, and Manager Jurgen Klopp, in his postgame news conference, admitted his team just didn’t have it:
“After we conceded one goal obviously the game changed. Even if I try to explain it, it is not that easy. I am actually not used to a reaction like this from my boys. We have to accept tonight was not good,” Klopp said.
“We were dominant second half and they had one or two counter attacks, that’s how it is. It is not a big problem. We have to defend them with passion.”
“We had not a lot of chances. If we had some, Roberto Firmino first half, one or two other moments. We had a lot of moments in around the box where we could have had a chance but we didn’t make it.”
United Manager Jose Mourinho knows that his side will have to be much much better against Liverpool on Sunday than they were Tuesday against Hull City, and he brought up the topic in his postmatch news conference. which is also in front of the home folks, Taking on the arch-rivals is the absolute “circle the date on the calendar” match of all home matches in any given season.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN 1620 The Zone.