Defender Chris Smalling ran a rule over Europa League opponents Liverpool and believes it is imperative Manchester United’s players win their individual battles in the game at Anfield on Thursday.
The England centre-back has already marshalled a defence that kept a clean sheet at Anfield in the 1-0 victory as recently as January, when the Merseysiders played without a recognised striker.
Christian Benteke and defender Steven Caulker came off the bench and were pushed up front late on but Jurgen Klopp now has Daniel Sturridge as an obvious option for this week’s clash with Divick Origi being another player who could start in attack for the home side.
Now back from injury, Smalling sat alongside Louis van Gaal at Wednesday morning’s pre-match press conference and is clearly relishing a physical confrontation, no matter who plays in the hosts’ forward line.
“I think, quite often, the first 20 minutes can be quite frantic,” said Smalling. “But you want to get the upper hand on your opponent, whoever you’re playing against. For me, for example, it’s the striker. Very early on, you want to get an early challenge in and make sure you dominate.
“These are games the players look forward to and it’s one I’m certainly looking forward to playing in,” he added, while insisting the hostile atmosphere will not affect United.
“It’s good that the manager sees it from a tactical viewpoint and we work on the training pitch before the game on our tactics so we don’t get caught up in the occasion. But when you cross over that white line, I think the emotion can drive you on and hopefully bring out a better performance.”
COMMENTS