Manchester United vs Liverpool – FA Cup

I am old skool and I love the FA Cup and the added tension and urgency because it’s a knockout competition and now that there are no replays, there’s no second chances either. At the end of the day you are either in the next round or you’re out, no messing. In the early rounds it’s all about hoping one of the teams you really hate get knocked out by a team of minnows and hoping even more that it doesn’t happen to you. When you get to the quarter finals things start to get serious as the prospect of a day out at Wem-ber-ly beckons. Quick, get those white suits out of the back of the wardrobe.

Below is a picture of the FA Cup known as “ole big ears” to remind us what we’re playing for.

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I think playing Manchester United at this time is the perfect game for us. It will hopefully bring out our competitive spirit and never say die attitude, plus United will still be hungover from celebrating the draw they escaped with recently. Drawing against us was the highlight of their season and they are unlikely to reach such dizzy heights again. For them it is on a par with us winning the league and CL this season. Ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but this is more than a game now. This is war, WAR!!! I say. (Oops I frightened myself a little bit then. Goodness knows what It will do to any United fans who might stumble across this site 😉 )

Now the difficult bit of getting into Klopp’s mind and deciding what team he will select to start the game. In the past he has used the FA Cup to play more of the the youngsters and fringe players, with reinforcements sitting on the bench ready to turn things around if needed. I have to say that hasn’t always worked out that well and might well not be the right approach for this match coming as it does off the back of a run of poor results, if not necessarily poor performances. I think he needs to stop the rot and play a strong side from the off, but he will probably also need to pick a side without Hendo. I doubt he will be available as he missed the game against Burnley and he doesn’t miss matches, unless he really is injured. I just hope whatever problem he has is only, as Klopp suggests, a minor issue. My team: Alisson, TAA, Matip, Fab, Robbo, Gini, Thiago, Milner, Mane, Firmino, Salah.

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