How would you like us to approach the Liverpool game?

Don't play as open as we have for every single game this season.
 
No, this one was at Old Trafford. The one when Martial scored on the volley after a chipped free kick. McTominay got the second in stoppage time when Ederson passed it to him and was caught out of his goal.

The one you're thinking of was this:



I remember the one I mentioned well because I really wanted us to set up that exact way and I'm quite sure I posted about it, suggesting it. I felt it was a good way to play against a 4-3-3 when the other team is stronger. We know Liverpool will likely use a 4-3-3 too. We did exactly what I hoped for and it worked well. I don't often get many tactical things right so that's why it stuck in my mind. :lol:
:lol: ah fair! I do remember that one too! I scared the hell out of my mother in law by screaming when Scott scored.
 
Question for the Dutchies: how would ten Hag be perceived back in Holland if he did try to shut up shop and play anti-football?
 
I'd like us to approach it in a way that reflects the style of football the manager was hired to implement
 
lubed up. the last thing we need right now on top of everything else is rectal abrasions.
 
Just don't leave a huge gap in the middle of the park, play sensibly, players working harder than Liverpool players, winning more duels and 50/50s than they usually do.

I'd rather have a go at winning the game than simply parking the bus, creating nothing at all and and keeping the score down, as that's pretty much asking for defeat which is an absolutely horrible way to approach any game.

There'll be spaces to get into if we can win the ball back in the middle third and use it sensibly. The difficulty is this is pretty much the opposite of anything we've done so far this season.
 
Tactically I'd setup to sit in, frustrate them and look to hit them on the break, pretty much what Palace did last weak. It requires patience and organisation, but it worked until the ref sent Ayew off.

I'd take all the post on here twitter and elsewhere about everyone talking about get annihilated and hammered and stick them up in the dressing rooms. I'd make them read every single one to show them what their fans think of them. I'd also put 7-0 all over and around the door of the dressing room so they all saw it on the way out.

If that doesn't motivate them, nothing will.
 
Wouldn't even be allowed back in the country and would have to claim refugee status in Italy
Don't know if times have changed over there or if there's ever a scenario where you're "allowed" to do it, but in the past Cruyff uses to rip into the Italians for doing it and I'm sure LVG has said similar, so I wonder whether ten Hag would be vilified if he tried it in a bid to get us through the game.
 
I want one of our guys to start a fight with one of their guys by the time we're 0-3 down
 
Shithouse our way to not losing. Make life difficult for them. Play rough without getting anyone sent off. Run like hell. Who's going to do that? I don't see any characters in this team who will.
 
This team is so erratic I can see us getting a result on Sunday.....:cool:

Are we erratic though?

We win quite a lot (against anyone shit) and lose quite a lot (against anyone half decent). Feels to me we are very consistent in that sense.

Liverpool, unfortunately, are decent.
 
A midfield without McTominay in it, so Mainoo and Amrabat as a double pivot taking turns as the 6 and 8, with Mejbri ahead doing the pressing. I think that would make every other positions’ life a bit easier.
 
Shithouse our way to not losing. Make life difficult for them. Play rough without getting anyone sent off. Run like hell. Who's going to do that? I don't see any characters in this team who will.

If you are losing 8-0 and you have 4 players sent off , is game abandoned and other team gets a 4-0 win?

I kid of course, or do I?

I think going defencive is the only option given players available.
 
Don't play as open as we have for every single game this season.
For me this. While the game can't be won in the first few minutes we certainly don't want to be out of it by half time. Irony is we was in the game just until before half time last season. I don't think it will be a 7-0 rout again thats for sure.
 
I'd try to catch them on the counter. If we try to go toe-to-toe we'll get hammered.

But that said, even playing on the counter, I don't know how we can hope for anything. The only player with the passing ability to unlock a defence on the counter is Bruno and he's out.

I'd shuffle the deck completely and go with something new to maybe surprise Klopp. They'll have studied the way we currently play and will be prepared to expose our gaps and annihilate us.

I'd say go for different formation, like 4-4-2:

Onana
AWB--Varane--Maguire--Shaw
Dalot--Mainoo--Amrabat--Antony
Hojlund--Garnacho
I don't have great hope either way, but with a solid hard working midfield we might be able to avoid a massacre and catch a lucky goal on the break.
 
Work your balls off pressing all over the pitch. Hope for a break and chance to score. We cant sit in as our defense is not fit for purpose.
 
Work your balls off pressing all over the pitch. Hope for a break and chance to score. We cant sit in as our defence is not fit for purpose.

We can't work our balls off or press efficiently either though. So I'd rather gamble on the low defence and if we lose then at least we'll not get humiliated as badly as by trying to press while leaving gaps everywhere. They have a very fast attack which will annihilate us if push up to press.
 
Ideally make the game as scrappy and ugly as possible, park the bus and kill all attacking momentum from Liverpool, hit them on the break if possible.

Under this team, chance of that actually happening is zilch.
 
Question for the Dutchies: how would ten Hag be perceived back in Holland if he did try to shut up shop and play anti-football?
That he's giving up on his ideas in order to save his job. I don't know if you can access these (and they'd require translation), but here is an opinion piece from this week that's basically pitying him for nothing going the way Ten Hag would presumably want:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/a-ba9fb819

And here's another piece that's more of an observation, on how everything's going wrong and Ten Hag is losing everyone's confidence and basically obly staying in his job right now because of administrative uncertainty at United:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/a-b894b72e

That's just the newspaper I read though; @KirkDuyt or @Stadjer or @BrilliantOrange might see other stuff.

Either way, I don't think he'd be judged at this particular point in time for shutting up shop. There would rather have been surprise if that had been his approach all along, especially after what he did at Ajax.

To also be on topic for a moment - I think I'd like Ten Hag to stick to the path he's been on the past couple of weeks; but play maybe a little more conservatively and play someone who would provide a lot more stability than McTominay. With Bruno suspended, maybe play Eriksen and Mainoo in front of Amrabat (assuming Casemiro and Mount are still unavailable). In the back, with Maguire injured, play Lindelöf and Varane, with Shaw and AWB (safer defensively than Dalot). And no Rashford up front, given this game really can't have any defensive passengers.
 
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That's he's giving up on his ideas in order to save his job. I don't know if you can access these (and they'd require translation), but here is an opinion piece from this week that's basically pitying him for nothing going the way Ten Hag would presumably want:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/a-ba9fb819

And here's another piece that's more of an observation, on how everything's going wrong and Ten Hag is losing everyone's confidence and basically obly staying in his job right now because of administrative uncertainty at United:

https://www.volkskrant.nl/a-b894b72e

That's just the newspaper I read though; @KirkDuyt or @Stadjer or @BrilliantOrange might see other stuff.

Either way, I don't think he'd be judged at this particular point in time for shutting up shop. There would rather have been surprise if that had been his approach all along, especially after what he did at Ajax.

To also be on topic for a moment - I think I'd like Ten Hag to stick to the path he's been on the past couple of weeks; but play maybe a little more conservatively and play someone who would provide a lot more stability than McTominay. With Bruno suspended, maybe play Eriksen and Mainoo in front of Amrabat (assuming Casemiro and Mount are still unavailable). In the back, with Maguire injured, play Lindelöf and Varane, with Shaw and AWB (safer defensively than Dalot). And no Rashford up front, given this game really can't have any defensive passengers.
Cheers for that!

You’re such an obstinate nation when it comes to how the game should be played, so very interesting to see how things are being perceived both in the whole picture and for a game like this where any positive result would be seen as a great outcome, no matter how it is procured (from our perspective).
 
ETH should give LGV a ring and get him to manage the game for him. That would be the smart approach
 
How about Flood the midfield for once and play with no strikers (there all rubbish anyway), we can play defensive and sit deep and look like a relegation team and play on the counter attack but eventually still lose with about 30% possession of the ball or we can try and look semi competent and flood the midfield and put an emphasis on possession and actually look like a midfield instead of the usual kamikaze tactics of a 1 man midfield.
 
I've not felt this much impending doom since the eve of the cup final. I don't know if I can bring myself to watch.