Manchester United’s new era under Erik ten Hag has got off to the worst start possible. No points gained and six goals conceded - with just an own goal in his favour - paints a sorry picture.
The Premier League is unrelenting and Monday night's test against Liverpool is arguably Ten Hag's biggest so far. He comes up against a Jurgen Klopp side who have also failed to win their first two outings.
Amid a backdrop of another anti-Glazer protest, the hostility between the two sets of supporters will be as rife as ever at Old Trafford with Klopp set to be one target of the jeering, as is usually the case.
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However, Danny Murphy says most United fans would love to see Klopp in their dugout. He suggested that the club would not have endured a trophyless spell if he had moved to Manchester instead of Merseyside in 2015.
“The biggest compliment I can give Jurgen Klopp is that every Manchester United fan who barracks him tomorrow night would actually love to have him at Old Trafford,” Murphy wrote in the Daily Mail.
“There’s little doubt Klopp’s move to Liverpool in 2015/16 instead of replacing Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford — as United had considered — has changed the history of both clubs.
“I’m convinced if Klopp were manager of United, they wouldn’t have gone five years without a trophy — and Liverpool wouldn’t have won everything, unless they’d somehow managed to get Pep Guardiola instead!”
Klopp has dismissed comparisons made between the rebuild job he had to orchestrate at Anfield and the one facing Ten Hag at United, calling his job “easier” than his counterpart's. Murphy agrees, although still theorised that the German would have brought success back to the Theatre of Dreams.
“United might have been a harder club for Klopp to manage,” he added. “The pressure is on for marquee signings and you wonder about the executive reaction if he told them he wanted Sadio Mane from Southampton rather than Paul Pogba in 2016.
"But I believe Klopp would have overcome it all, even at Old Trafford. He is strong-minded, knows how he wants to play and the players who fit into that.
“My gut feeling is he would have brought United to his way of thinking rather than the other way. Having missed out on Klopp, United have failed to find anyone close.”
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