Roy Keane’s initial reaction to learning that Liverpool will travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals suggests that he’s relishing the tie.
Both clubs came through their fifth round clashes on Wednesday night, with the Reds beating Southampton 3-0 and Erik ten Hag’s side scoring a typical late winner away to Nottingham Forest.
The former Red Devils captain was on punditry duty at Anfield for ITV Sport and, upon realising the mouthwatering pairing for the next round of the competition, he responded: “Great draw.”
Keane then expanded on the last meeting between the sides, the goalless draw on Merseyside in December, when he said of United: “They parked the bus, didn’t they?! They got heavily criticised for it, so they might have to be more on the front foot at home.
“Big result for Man United tonight. They have Man City at the weekend, but a bit of confidence from beating Forest tonight. Big win.”
To say that United ‘parked the bus’ at Anfield two months ago would be an understatement – they had six shots to Liverpool’s 34 that evening (BBC Sport).
However, Ten Hag’s gameplan worked as, in the 41 matches the Reds have played so far this season, his side remain the only team to earn a clean sheet against us. Chelsea did keep us scoreless inside 90 minutes in the Carabao Cup final last Sunday before Virgil van Dijk’s extra time winner.
That could see the Manchester outfit adopt a similar strategy for the FA Cup clash in mid-March, even if Keane is urging them to be more expansive at Old Trafford.
Hopefully by then Liverpool will have most of their senior firepower back fit, with Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota all ruled out of recent games, though the latter won’t return until April at the earliest.
The Reds now face two trips to their fiercest rivals in the space of three weeks, and United will relish the opportunity to thwart us in two legs of our potential quadruple. Jurgen Klopp’s side simply cannot allow that to happen.
All these stats of 34 to 6 shot on goal suggest that Liverpool firepower could have been more technical, just as we were in the 7-0 last year.