When you pitch two teams of fringe players and youngsters, desperate to impress, against one another, you’re always likely to witness an energetic and chaotic spectacle.
“Our mentality has improved. That’s grown over the last few years and the gaffer has changed that so much.”
What a difference 72 hours can make. We were poor on Sunday at Old Trafford, there’s no doubt about it, with a lack of attacking ingenuity the main cause of a failure to break down Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s innovative take on parking the bus. But at Genk on Wednesday night, our old joie de vivre in attack was very much clear and present.
We can say it through gritted teeth, but the fact remains: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got his tactics spot on in the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Let’s face it: there’s NO good time for an international break in the calendar, whether you support Liverpool or enjoy a bit of a bet every now and again. But it’s an especially bad time when you are enjoying the power of eight, as the Reds are. That is, we’re on an eight-game winning streak and enjoy an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League table over Manchester City.
We were shown in glorious technicolour the perils of getting complacent on the football pitch at Anfield on Wednesday night. Liverpool had romped into a 3-0 lead in barely half an hour in the Champions League game against Red Bull Salzburg, with goals from Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Mo Salah giving us the most comfortable of leads.
That’s another stern test of our title credentials passed. Make no mistake: plenty of teams will flounder at Bramall Lane this season, where the Sheffield United fans are able to whip up a raucous atmosphere and make their opponent’s afternoon work rather difficult.