NEIL ATKINSON, Ian Salmon and Sean Rogers have the final word on Liverpool’s first leg Europa League victory over Man United in this week’s ‘Tuesday Review’.
The three have a chat about pre-match priorities for both managers, what they’d have taken before kick-off and how in-game incidents shaped the game and their subsequent decisions.
Did Van Gaal hand Liverpool the impetus from the first minute with the risk-averse nature of the line-up and proceed to compound and frustrate Manchester United fans with his conservatism once Liverpool had given themselves the lead?
What did Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp do to exploit United’s caution and could they have potentially done more to assert themselves or was it simply a case of a 10/10 performance from David De Gea that has kept the door slightly ajar for Manchester United.
Excellent show, as ever. I’m going to repeat this ad infinitum: Milner or Lallana, never both. Not enough numbers, too many carriers. Lallana, on current form, offers more.
Your discussion around Lallana, Coutino and Firmino’s upturn was interesting. They’ve all begun to flourish since Sturridge’s return. No coincidence, I suspect.
I’m with Ian for Thursday. An early goal kills the tie. Who’s our best goalscorer? Daniel Sturridge. We’ve nothing to fear, we should just go and play our natural game: we’re better than they are. If memory serves we’ve won game out of the last four against United: that one game was the game Daniel Sturridge started and scored in. Again, no coincidence. All the possession in the world is no good to you without a goal threat.