Football writer Daniel Harris joined Monday’s OTB AM to discuss the issues Manchester United need to fix in order to compete at Liverpool's level.
Following Sunday night’s 2-1 Europa League semi-final defeat to Sevilla, it is time for United’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to assess the lack of quality in his squad and buy the players needed, according to Harris.
“Harry Maguire said that United deserved to win but I think that’s a load of boll***s. There’s a handy metric to decide which team deserves to win a football match and it’s called the score, and United scored fewer goals.
“The reason they ran out of steam was because they had nothing to bring off the bench. I’m sure Ole knows that substitutes are handy because he was a handy one himself, but the quality on the bench is insufficient.”
Harris criticised United’s style of play, emphasising the blame on the players for not being good enough in big games to get on the ball and create chances, especially in the defence.
“If you look at the way Liverpool play, they play with two wide attackers, and the reason they can do that is because they’ve got two full-backs that can keep the width.
“[Aaron] Wan-Bissaka and Brandon Williams are good players but they didn’t really want to get down the line, so it all got a bit tight and a bit narrow.
“It never really looked like United were going to win so the way you deal with that is you buy players like Jadon Sancho who would’ve made a big difference last night.”
In comparing Manchester United’s front three with Liverpool’s, Harris said that both sets of players are equally as good as each other and that it’s more about the players you’re surrounded by that improve your game.
“I don’t think it’s about the front three individual players at United and how they combine, it’s about the way your team works with the front three.
“Liverpool’s front three work really well in the way Liverpool play. They have full-backs that stay wide and can facilitate that with a midfield that have a lot of legs and technical quality.
“United have a front three that have the ability to be as good as Liverpool or City’s front three. They are a lot younger. They are still learning the game whereas Salah and Mane are at their peaks.
“So, in order to fit the way United want to play, they want to get men forward. For that to be the case they need defenders who can defend one-on-one and get forward.
“In terms of scoring goals, United have that in attack. They don’t have the composure that Liverpool have in big games. They need to get players to fill in the holes that we can easily that exist.”
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