Arne Slot has warned that Manchester United perform when it matters in the biggest matches and wants his players to keep the Old Trafford crowd quiet in his first competitive clash against Liverpool’s bitter rivals as manager.
Slot has overseen two victories to start his Anfield tenure, beating Ipswich and Brentford, but the second trip of his career to Old Trafford on Sunday will be the biggest test since replacing Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool have won two of their past 13 visits to United and Slot’s solitary trip resulted in a 4-0 Europa League defeat in charge of AZ.
“I haven’t experienced this game yet but the players have experienced it many, many times,” Slot said. “We have to not only prepare them for the tactic part but I want to know about what you can expect and how you should play in the best possible way, so that it doesn’t happen that the crowd is going completely crazy.
“Having experienced at Ipswich the atmosphere around that game, I am expecting this to be even more and United have shown last season as well that every time the game was on the line or there were hard or tough moments for them they could step up.”
Sunday’s match will allow Slot and Erik ten Hag, who enjoy plenty of mutual respect, to go head-to-head in England for the first time after sparring in the Eredivisie.
Last season at Old Trafford Liverpool lost in the FA Cup quarter-finals and drew in the Premier League, a result that halted their challenge for the title in April. Slot has managed one victory over Ten Hag this summer, Liverpool easing to a 3-0 pre-season win in the US.
The new signing Federico Chiesa is unlikely to feature after training for the first time with his teammates on Friday but Curtis Jones is the only definite absentee. Slot said of Chiesa: “It’s not easy to bring a player in that can help us because we already have so much quality. And we don’t only have a lot of quality, we have a really good culture over here when it comes to hard work.
“He’s really competitive in everything he does, works really hard, and he combines this with scoring goals, being aggressive in the one-v-one duels or actions. In my opinion, he’s a very good player to have in our squad.”
