Football: Man United ready to fight for result at Liverpool, says ten Hag

LONDON – Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has said that his team are prepared to “suffer and sacrifice” at a hostile Anfield, as they seek a win against Liverpool that would keep them on the fringes of the Premier League title race.

Victory on Sunday would keep alive United’s slim hopes of catching leaders Arsenal, while defeat would bolster Liverpool’s hopes of a late push for the top four.

“I’m looking forward to it, the ambience, the atmosphere,” said ten Hag, fresh from winning the League Cup last Sunday to end the club’s six-year trophy drought.

“It will be great, it will be hostile against us, but we like that.

“I know these players, my squad, my team, we will be prepared to go there and fight and to go there with confidence.

“We know it’s going to be difficult, we know we will have to suffer and we will have to sacrifice to get a good result.”

Ten Hag’s third-placed United are still chasing four trophies in his first season, while Liverpool, who fell agonisingly short of an unprecedented quadruple last season, have struggled.

Jurgen Klopp’s men have, though, been in form in recent weeks, winning three of their past four league games and not conceding a single goal.

Ten Hag was reluctant to read too much into the switch in fortunes of the two clubs this campaign.

“We are still in the season now, never does it always go so consistently,” he said. “It’s fluid and I am sure Liverpool have really good management, a really good playing philosophy and a really good strategy. We are aware of that but we are not talking about other clubs.

“We are talking about us and I think we are in a good direction and with our philosophy, strategy and culture, we have to keep making progress.”

United’s away form against key rivals, with defeats by Manchester City and Arsenal, has been their one black mark in a fine season.

But ten Hag sees no reason why they cannot win at Anfield and complete a season league double over Liverpool following their 2-1 win at Old Trafford last August.

“We have to play and to make it our game,” said the Dutchman.

“Of course we know the ambience will not be supporting us and you have to deal with that. But our players, they like it. They like to play in such atmospheres.”

One positive for United is the strong mentality that he has instilled.

They head into the clash off the back of a 3-1 midweek comeback win over West Ham in the FA Cup fifth round, in which all their goals came in the second half.

Before that, they beat Newcastle 2-0 in the League Cup final, edged out Barcelona 2-1 (4-3 on aggregate) in the Europa League play-offs, and were 3-0 winners over Leicester – all in one week.

Following the West Ham victory, captain Harry Maguire said ten Hag had delivered a stern half-time team talk as he felt that the players were not putting their best foot forward.

“What I say was we are not playing (to) our standards, that is what I saw in the first half,” ten Hag said.

“Every day I demand a performance and I don’t accept when it’s lower. I will criticise them... I think the performance in the second half was much better.”

Ten Hag also confirmed that United will have Luke Shaw available after the defender missed the West Ham game, while Jadon Sancho is expected to recover from illness in time for the fixture. AFP, REUTERS