There was no plan to attack, the Red Devils faced Liverpool at Old Trafford exclusively to prevent a goal from the opposing team. That was the observation from Jurgen Klopp, but Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was not having any of the accusations. The Reds to play football, Solskjaer insisted.
Reacting to Klopp's criticism that there was no effort to attack the part of United, the Norwegian boss said his team paid no mind to caution against Liverpool. The plan, according to him, was to play hard and win.
"We set the team up to attack and to be aggressive and create chances, and I thought we did that," Manchester Evening News reported the Reds chief as saying.
Solskjaer also made clear that United's opening goal was not aided by the match's officiating, which Klopp had questioned. The German manager for Liverpool hit the decision to allow a goal by United that was supposedly nullified by a foul.
No foul was committed, according to United.
"Foul? No chance, we're not playing basketball. He touched him, but it's not a clear and obvious error," Solskjaer asserted.
For his part, Klopp admitted that he got frustrated in the absence of an attack on United's game plan, which the German said seems to be the norm when the club is playing against his.
"Man United had momentum in the first half because they were purely there to defend us," Reuters reported the Liverpool chief as saying.
"Since I'm in England Man United always played like this. I'm not the person who should be frustrated by United's style. In the last years they just defend, that's how it is, it's no criticism, it's just a fact," he added.
However, former United manager Jose Mourinho dismissed the assessments made by Klopp, saying the match showed that the Red Devils gave everything against the visiting opponents and that Solskjaer should be proud of how the players performed.
"They were organized, they had a plan. You can agree or disagree, but they had a game plan, they stuck to it," Mourinho said.
He added that United came to the game well-prepared, and the tactic laid out by Solskjaer played out as planned.
"He didn't like the menu. He likes meat and he got fish. so he was not happy," Mourinho said in reaction to the complaints aired by Klopp.
The draw ended Klopp's winning run, and most importantly, it will continue a record that the German would not want to be talking about - Liverpool remains winless at Old Trafford.
