Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp explains how Manchester United have changed under Erik ten Hag

Jurgen Klopp revealed Manchester United’s aggressive approach to man-marking caused Liverpool problems during their pre-season friendly in Bangkok.

United ran out 4-0 winners in Thailand to get Erik ten Hag’s first pre-season off to a flying start and there were some impressive performances from the United side.

Jadon Sancho, Fred and Anthony Martial put United 3-0 up at the break, before Facundo Pellistri rounded off the scoring in the second half.

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United did have a fitness edge in the game, with a lot of their squad having had a week longer than Liverpool in pre-season training. That was evidenced by United making 10 outfield changes at half-time, while Liverpool played three different outfield teams for each of the three half hours.

The strongest they came was in the final half an hour and they did create some chances, but United were ruthless with their opportunities and Klopp admitted the approach to man-marking, particularly in midfield, had been problematic and he tried to add players centrally to pose more problems.

“I saw a lot of good performances in moments, but no consistency, sometimes we were in a rush, the way United defended in a man-marking system, especially in midfield, we gave the ball away and they finished the moments off, that was obvious,” he said.

“The way United is playing with this man-marking idea you need more flexibility, when Harvey [Elliott] came in the middle we were more dangerous.”

Klopp felt his side could certainly have found the back of the net at the Rajamangala Stadium and said the game had come too early in pre-season for a more competitive affair.

“The result is fair, fair, we have to accept that, but it’s clear we could have scored our goals as well and then it would have been a more spectacular game,” he said.

“The goals we gave away, we could have got assists for it, they used the chances, they caused us problems, but I saw a lot of good stuff from my team.

“The game came a bit too early for us, individual mistakes happen in football. It was pretty clear where we made mistakes but we could have scored three or four in the last five minutes and we didn’t, that’s our fault.”

Klopp also insisted he had no regrets about fielding a more youthful team in the opening half-hour, by which point United had raced into a commanding lead.

“We have to do what is right for us, we can’t have a look at what line-up the opponent uses, United have been in training a week longer for the core group,” he said.

“We don’t want to take anything away from United, they did really well, but we showed glimpses of our football when we really dangerous, some moments were quite freaky that we didn’t score.”

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