Manchester United have a new transfer deadline after being handed Liverpool opportunity

Manchester United's early fixtures in the 2022/23 Premier League season offer Erik ten Hag an opportunity, to ease his way into his new role and then deliver an early marker as to how times have changed now he's in charge.

Brighton at home and Brentford away are certainly appealing enough fixtures to begin with. United were embarrassed at the Amex Stadium last month but beat the Seagulls at Old Trafford and they did the double over Brentford.

Ten Hag will expect a perfect start and every United manager should be targeting six points from those fixtures. Then comes an Old Trafford clash with Liverpool and the chance to draw a line in the sand after the disastrous Ole Gunnar Solskjaer/Ralf Rangnick era.

The wheels were coming off for Solskjaer last October, but the arrival of Jurgen Klopp's side in M16 saw the engine fall out. The 5-0 humiliation could have been worse and Solskjaer was effectively finished as United's manager that day.

Six months later United went to Anfield and lost 4-0, managing to be as bad under Rangnick as they were under Solskjaer. Now Ten Hag is picking up the pieces, trying to put the wheels back on.

The alarming aspect of those twin defeats to Liverpool were how lessons weren't learnt. United were outclassed in both games but they were outwitted as well, in differing ways the games were tactical monstrosities.

Ten Hag will bring the kind of elite-level coaching and eye for detail to planning that United have lacked in recent seasons. He is unlikely to set up his team to play into the hands of a side as clinical as Liverpool, but will expect his players to imprint their own gameplan on the fixture.

This game is an ideal chance to give an early glimpse of what has changed. It will take Ten Hag a