Jesse Marsch has admitted that his Leeds United side will look to hit Liverpool on the counter-attack when they travel to Anfield on Saturday night.
The Elland Road outfit fell into the bottom three last weekend and are in urgent need of a victory with the American boss receiving a significant amount of criticism from some supporters in recent weeks.
The former RB Leipzig boss knows that his side must execute their game plan if they’re to take something from the clash with the FA Cup champions, highlighting the need to defend well against Liverpool’s set-pieces.
“The weaknesses in Liverpool…[Laughs]. It’s not that we see a weakness in them, it’s can we challenge them in the intensity in which we play and with the ball can we limit them as much as possible,” Marsch explained (via Rousing The Kop).
“Can we limit them on set-plays where they’ve been incredibly effective, and can we not let them get out on the counter and can we find more situations where we can get out on the counter.
“Both teams like to play on the counter and they’re one of the most lethal in the world at that.
“I wouldn’t describe Liverpool as having weakness, I’d try to say we will have a game plan and we will try to stick to it. We will try to execute it to the best of our ability to give ourselves the best chance in the match.”
Leeds have just nine points from their opening 11 league games and are without a win in their last eight.
The Yorkshire outfit will take hope from Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 defeat of the Reds last weekend, however, and will look to cause another huge upset.
We’re fresh off the back of a solid 3-0 Champions League victory over Ajax on Wednesday, though, and need to put together a run of decent results before the World Cup starts next month.
Marsch is right to point out that we’ve been ‘incredibly effective’ from set-pieces this season and Darwin Nunez’s goal in Amsterdam came courtesy of an Andy Robertson corner.
With the No.27, Bobby Firmino and Virgil van Dijk, we have great headers of the ball and we’ve used that to our advantage this term.
Let’s hope for a strong performance against Leeds to ensure we pick up another huge three points.