This whole "we had more rest than they did, they've played more games" etc seems to only matter in regards to cumulative fatigue, no? Such as certain players likelier to get injured due to an intense schedule? I say that because you wouldn't have known that we rested our first team last weekend if you watched that second half. And even going back before the new year, Wolves had only 48 hours between games before we played them and we had 24 more hours worth of rest, and they matched us all the way. Spurs put out a full strength line up in the FA Cup while we rested everyone and they didn't look any less tired than we did. If anything we looked leggier in the second half. And unless United pick up an injury or two against Wolves on Wednesday, that extra game they have isn't going to impact their performance one bit come next weekend. They're not going to come to Anfield more "tired" or other such bollocks. Having more time off seems to put us off our groove.
Trade-off, I suppose.
You rest more, you wear off a little fatigue but then you lose rhythm - for a short while. Light training and a game against an easy opponent lets you maintain some of that rhythm, but it does not really do much for the pace and intensity.
Its a trade-off and this has ALWAYS been the case for us and everyone else in January and February. Even pre-Premier League era.
People say January(and February) has been Jurgen's problem months, but these have been all our managers' problem months, because January is right after the Christmas schedule- and that has always been hectic. It's also almost in the middle of the season and most coaches optimize their training for a specific half- midtables and relegation favorites optimize for the start of the season, while top-half teams usually optimize for the 2nd half of the season. Form across the league is either slowly picking up or coming down during those months and so results are always mixed.
It's been a problem month each season for every team in the league.
January is more about winning games trough tactics.