Erik ten Hag disagrees with Jurgen Klopp on man-marking claim after Manchester United beat Liverpool 4-0 in Thailand
Erik ten Hag and his Manchester United side beat Liverpool 4-0 in a pre-season friendly game in Thailand- a match that didn’t really matter, in all honesty.
Judging by the way Jurgen Klopp rotated his team during the game, it was clear he wanted to use the game to warm our players up. To say we didn’t take the game seriously would be a disrespect to the match.
But it was clear the Reds’ primary focus wasn’t to get a win by any means necessary. It was just a curtain-raiser in a pre-season tour for two of the biggest English clubs visiting their fans in Asia.
After the game (h/t Liverpool Echo), Klopp claimed that it was largely ten Hag’s man-marking system in defence that helped the Red Devils get a big result on the day.
“The way United is playing with this man-marking idea you need more flexibility. When Harvey [Elliott] came in the middle we were more dangerous.”
But speaking to manutd.com (h/t Liverpool Echo), ten Hag has now clarified his team wasn’t necessarily playing a man-marking system.
“I wouldn’t say that we play man-marking – at a certain moment, we play man-marking. We want to press, we want to press all day and play proactive football. Sometimes we can do that high but if not possible, we have to read it as a team and drop lower.”
If Liverpool were to ever lose a game of football against Man Utd, our fans would want it to be in a pre-season friendly all day long. Last year, Liverpool spanked the Old Trafford outfit home and away, beating them by a 9-0 aggregate scoreline in the PL.
The Reds were bringing in new players on the pitch at regular intervals in the game at the Rajamangala Stadium and it was obviously disruptive to the flow of the match for us.
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It wasn’t really about winning. Erik ten Hag perhaps wanted to prove a point by playing a strong team on paper and getting a win, but it was evident that Klopp wasn’t bothered about the game that much.
