18 Oct 2019 21:22:34
So as 1630 on Sunday ticks ever closer (I am on nights saturday and sunday so I hope we win or I will be a right delight on sunday night) I was thinking. There has been a lot said about the game. How it could be the easiest win we have had at old Trafford since that 4-1 game several years ago, how no punit would put any of thier team in the combined 11 and United are out of form, out of confidence and there for the taking. However last season we were confident and drew 0-0. Different circumstances I know, different type of game and no where near as big a gap at the top to rest back on. But it was a poor game and United will take a poor game this season as 0-0 may be seen as a good result for them.

Let's not forget this average United team have played two of the top six this season I think. Beating Chelsea 4-0 and drawing 1-1 with Arsenal. So they have not lost a game against any top six team as yet. Look I know we are flying and they are struggling and I really feel if we get a goal or two in the first half hour it could be a very comfortable evenings work but it is United, it is Old Trafford and anything could happen. I remeber a game in the mid 80s where United had a team that was mostly full of players no one can remeber now, their midfield was unremarkable and we had that great team of that era, and we lost 3-0. This season United are not scoring freely and struggling to make chances but on the other hand I can't remeber a game where they were beaten by 3 or 4 . They are a solid mid table team at present, much like Burnley and will not give away to many goals . I would love 4-0 or similar but the reality may be a scrappy 1-0 win and I will go to work happy.

18 Oct 2019 21:43:07
The danger is that the media and a fair whack of their fans are writing their season off, and that, and the fact that it's Liverpool, could make them really dig in and fight for it.

We're going with everything to lose. We're not just being tipped to beat them, we're being tipped to beat them easily. A 1-0 to us would be deemed a disappointing performance by some pundits, imo. On paper we should beat them easily, I've just hammered their squad on the Match Posts page. But as tired hack pundits like to tell you ad infinitum, the game isn't played on paper.

Mentality is huge in this game. If we get complacent and they turn up and have a bit of edge about them, we could be in trouble.

And they can field a pacey front 3 if Martial is fit to start and will be a danger on the counter. It's not a pacey front 3 that's shown a lot of end product, but if we over-commit, they could still get in behind and turn our defence.

Klopp has to manage this game very carefully. Luckily, he's kinda good at this football manager lark, so despite the forgoing, I am still confident.

19 Oct 2019 00:00:13
I agree with much of what ye say but I think we are focusing far too much worry on results that happened in past years when they hold little relevance to this current fixture. The tide has turned in the last 2 years, we now go to OT as favourites so let's bask in that and believe in the players to show we're a far superior team . Of course this game could be a tough outing like any other PL game so often is. But klopp and the players will be fully focused.

Us fans have the right to be in the highest confidence we've ever felt over last 30 years going into this fixture and that should be relished. Wether we win 1-0 scrappy or smash them we will be delighted with the 3 points, maximum points is all that matters.

19 Oct 2019 02:20:14
When United were in their pomp, and we were off the pace, we still really got ourselves up for those games and, on a number of occasions, won, despite being the lesser side on paper. Being the under dog is sometimes a good thing for a team as it takes the pressure off - United may benefit from that, i'd be very wary of talking us up smashing them. These games are never cut and dried, and I doubt this will be any different.

19 Oct 2019 07:33:07
End of the day. If we turn up like we can, it won’t matter how “up for it” Utd are, or how ugly they try to make the game, we win.

The only thing that can stop us from getting a result there, is us.

19 Oct 2019 09:35:10
We went there to Draw last year. I would rather drop points trying to win than settling for evens.

19 Oct 2019 09:45:05
I personally feel that this the biggest game so far this season and it won’t be a walk over. I can see a very cagy game happening. It would be massive to get a win and move onto the CL game especially with the 2 week break we’ve just had.
I will have everything crossed. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼.

19 Oct 2019 11:42:04
I can only imagine it being a really cagey and frustrating game with 1 or 2 goals, but if city drop points today that could change, going into the game with the chance to open the gap further would give the lads a huge lift, I just desperately want to see us go all guns for the win, as we definitely went there last year with a do not lose approach.

19 Oct 2019 18:13:32
I don't believe this idea that last year we set out to get a draw at OT. Why would klopp ever consider that an option when we were in a tight title race. We were hurt and dissapointed after that draw, not a hope that klopp or his players were happy with that. We just had an off day and United sat so deep with bodies behind the ball we struggled to break them down, firmino and TAA were huge losses that day, sturridge was invisible and made it easy for United to focus on salah and mane. Nothing like this settling for a draw nonsense people are making up.

19 Oct 2019 19:34:36
Went out to draw? We didn’t even do that last season! We didn’t turn up at all, in fact, we were lucky to come away with a draw.

20 Oct 2019 04:32:14
The comparisons to past years are irrelevant in this scenario. This derby always had players on both teams who could show some character and fight. There was always carragher, hyypia, gerrard, kuyt, suarez type personalities who would battle hard, even in our poorest spells. I see no strong personalities in United's 11 tomorrow and even more damning is the fact their manager is a dead man walking who looks completely out of ideas and has a squad of players who have shown hardly any form or confidence in the last 25 games. This isn't just an underdog vs favourite. This is an injury hit team who can't create any attacking threat, look less than solid at the back, have a spineless midfield and the man who's in charge of changing all their problems has zero clue how to tactically use his players. Even in the last couple of years a poor United still had the likes of Valencia, Herrera, fellaini who would scrap and make it awkward for us.
The likes of Fred, Pereira, lingaard, or massively declined ageing options matic and mata as their midfield picks suggests enough for me to see it very unlikely that they can pull a strong battling team performance out of nowhere whilst also causing us threat in attack. In the last 6 months they've never once looked like turning a corner or fighting together as a team when they really needed a perfornance.

If a good manager who had tactical knowledge, good man management skills or any sort of a strong personality was in charge I'd hold a bit more caution. Mourinho could always pull out an ugly but effective game plan from his players when demanded. De gea out, pogba their only form of potential midfield threat is out. Rashford has never been lower in confidence. Players just coming back into team from injuries.

This is a manchester united side whos captain is Ashley young and whos manager has shown the world how inept he is at this level.

I just can't see where they can pull a team performance from when there's not even going to be 1 strong leader in their team. We're fully fit and firing and I've no doubts that we will be up for this big time in which case we will be too much for them.
Stop these pointless comparisons to previous years as this current situation is miles and miles away from any relevance to past fixtures.

20 Oct 2019 05:17:30
I don't know what game people were watching to think we went out there to get a draw. Does nobody remember how we were running them ragged for the first 25 or 30 mins, they were hanging on and it seemed inevitable that we were going to break them down. Then firmino got injured and sturridge halted all the pace in our attacks and his positional play always suffocated mane and salah.

Remember United were on a 8 game win streak with confidence. Rashford was the league's in form striker.

We were in a tough period, heavy schedule including playing bayern twice either side of United. Gomez, lovren, TAA weren't available, which meant we were forced to play fabinho, gini, Henderson, Milner every game 3 times a week. Matip was yet to hit his top performance levels and we were having a mini blip in confidence with heavy legs starting to show. We failed to score in 3 of our 4 games while also drawing with West ham and leicester.

We were just not playing well and the squad was stretched with little chance to rotate.
We clearly never went out there to get a draw, complete nonsense to think that. We were level on points with city at the time, why on earth would anyone think klopp was happy with a point when we attacked them aggressively from the start until bobbys injury and klopp was visibly upset at the final whistle to drop points. Completely made up thoughts.