Xherdan Shaqiri has said he is not surprised Liverpool dominated against a “defensive” Manchester United side at Anfield on Sunday.
The Swiss international came off the bench and scored with two deflected strikes to hand Liverpool all three points against their Premier League rivals.
How did Liverpool dominate Man United? Five key things to know:
- Liverpool went into Sunday’s encounter 16 points above Manchester United but having scored only six more league goals this term.
- The hosts deservedly took the lead through Sadio Mane but were pegged back by Jesse Lingard’s equaliser.
- Klopp’s men began to get on top again in the second half and finished the game with 36 attempts.
- Shaqiri scored with two of those attempts, ultimately leading to Jose Mourinho’s sacking on Tuesday.
- The former Stoke City attacker labelled Man United “defensive” but only Fulham, Cardiff, Burnley and Southampton have conceded more league goals this term.
Manchester United managed only six shots at Liverpool’s goal and struggled to get a foothold throughout the game.
After the match, Shaqiri was told about his side’s shot count, to which he responded: “I’m not surprised.”
According to the Independent, Shaqiri added: “We know Manchester United plays defensively, they aren’t going to have a lot of ball possession and it was important today to play with high intensity, to press them high, to have the second balls and play forward fast to try and create a lot of chances.
“We did that today but obviously in the second half much better, and we scored, in the end, another two goals.
“We need to maybe do that better before, take the chances to score, because against big teams you have to take chances because the big teams can have only one chance and score. We managed that very well.”
Who will stop Man United shipping so many goals?
One major thing that stood out on Sunday was the ease of Liverpool’s second-half dominance.
Mourinho sides are usually renowned for their defensive resilience, but that simply hasn’t been the case this season.
After 17 matches, United have already conceded 29 goals – that’s one more than they shipped in the entirety of the previous campaign.
A string of poor defensive displays was surely a factor in United’s decision to relieve Mourinho of his duties on Tuesday.
The Red Devils are set to hire an interim manager until the end of the season before a new long-term replacement comes in.
Mauricio Pochettino, Zinedine Zidane and Antonio Conte have all been mentioned as potential candidates, and one of their first tasks will be to improve United’s defence in the transfer market.
The post Shaqiri not surprised with high shot tally against “defensive” Man Utd appeared first on Squawka News.
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