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<\/p>\nErik ten Hag presides over Machester United training this week<\/p>\n
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Erik ten Hag has not subjected Manchester United\u2019s squad to a video nasty. Or not this particular one, anyway. Ten Hag can show his players clips from previous games; he used footage from their win over Chelsea to prepare for Bayern Munich. Revisiting March\u2019s 7-0 thrashing at Anfield, however, is not on his agenda. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the right thing [to do],\u201d the United manager said. \u201cLast year, it was the past. What we can change is the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the past and the future have a pertinence, however, as Ten Hag returns to the scene of United\u2019s heaviest ever defeat to Liverpool. Nine months ago, he had a team in ripe form, one that had won a trophy a week earlier. He had a fit Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez, but both will miss the rematch. He had Bruno Fernandes available, but now his captain is suspended. He had Marcus Rashford in such form that the forward went to Merseyside with 17 goals in his previous 20 games; now he has not scored in open play for more than three months. Then he faced a Liverpool team eight points behind United.<\/p>\n
And still his side lost 7-0. Now Liverpool\u2019s title challengers are 10 points ahead of United, Ten Hag\u2019s team looking stretched with at least nine players out. The context would suggest there is the potential for embarrassment at a ground where United have not even scored since 2018. Ten Hag nevertheless argued that fear will not be a factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen last season that we were scared there,\u201d the Dutchman insisted. \u201cIt was a bad experience but it\u2019s not similar: you start again. Last year, the first half I think we played very decent and we got hammered just after half-time then and then we collapsed and that can\u2019t happen.\u201d Some of Ten Hag\u2019s recent appraisals of games have felt overly generous to his team but they were drawing 0-0 until the 43rd minute in March; collapsing, however, has felt a recurring theme for a team who can concede goals in sudden spurts.<\/p>\n
Then, it was possible to dismiss an extraordinary result as an aberration; indeed, Jurgen Klopp branded it a \u201cfreak\u201d scoreline, the sort that happens once in a lifetime. Yet the last time Ten Hag\u2019s team went to Anfield, it was with a mere four defeats in their previous 38 games. They have been beaten in 12 of 24 this season. Three-quarters of his losses as United manager have come from that March day onwards.<\/p>\n
It looks a downward spiral that could conclude in his departure: indeed Jose Mourinho was sacked two days after defeat at Anfield in December 2018. A changing context could further imperil Ten Hag: he has enjoyed the backing of the current regime at Old Trafford in the owners, the Glazer family, the football director, John Murtough, and the outgoing chief executive Richard Arnold. \u201cI feel that and they tell that so that\u2019s fine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Yet the imminent investment of Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe brings added uncertainty. The petrochemicals billionaire has allegedly met with the former Chelsea manager Graham Potter. Speculation could swirl around Ten Hag. \u201cI\u2019m not concerned about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Liverpool thrashed United on their last visit <\/p>\n
He has enough other worries without thinking about the prospect of the sack. He started the season with a midfield of Casemiro, Fernandes and Mason Mount. After the captain\u2019s needless booking for dissent against Bournemouth, he requires a new skipper \u2013 he refused to divulge who \u2013 and his midfield may comprise of Scott McTominay, Sofyan Amrabat and Kobbie Mainoo. The 35-year-old Jonny Evans might have to be pressed into service at centre-back, along with Raphael Varane, who he had exiled until the Frenchman\u2019s sudden reappearance in the side against Bayern.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, United have a wretched record on the road against the elite teams in the last two years: since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer\u2019s 2021 triumph at Tottenham, they have not beaten a home side who kicked off in the top eight while Liverpool had a 100 percent record at Anfield in all competitions this season. United have had their worst ever Champions League group campaign and defeat on Sunday would make it the first calendar year since 1989 when they have lost 20 times.<\/p>\n
They are often underdogs at Anfield these days, but may not have been such underdogs since Boxing Day in 1986, when Liverpool were the reigning champions, United mired in the lower half and a relatively new manager, a certain Alex Ferguson, oversaw a 1-0 win.<\/p>\n
Ferguson created a culture at Old Trafford. Others have struggled to emulate him. Ten Hag believes his past has prepared him for the task. \u201cAt Ajax, you have to win,\u201d Ten Hag reflected. \u201cHere, here you have to win definitely, that is always the demand. You can never run away from those demands. and I don\u2019t run away from that. That\u2019s our obligation: to win every game, the players in the squad are good enough to put out a team who can win every game.\u201d But this game, of all Ten Hag\u2019s 86 in charge of United, must rank among the hardest to win, and one that could shape his future.<\/p>\n
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