Round two of the Merseyside vs Manchester Sunday kicks off at the Old Trafford with Liverpool in the unfamiliar position of being 5 points ahead of their counterparts with half of the season gone by. Jurgen Klopp, however, knows that the stat won’t be mattering much when they visit their arch-rivals Manchester United as their current form states something else. Liverpool haven’t won in their last 3 matches with a couple of disappointing draws followed by a demoralising defeat at the hands of Southampton in the EFL Cup semis.
Manchester United are, however, on a 9-match winning streak and it seems the superstar squad setup by Jose Mourinho is finally starting to click. This will be their toughest yet after they started winning and will provide more of a yardstick to which direction their campaign is heading.
TRIVIA
- This will be the 50th Premier League meeting between Manchester United and Liverpool – United have won 27 of the previous 49 (D9 L13).
- Liverpool have lost 11 of their last 14 visits to Old Trafford in the Premier League, winning the other three.
- Liverpool have lost more Premier League matches (27) and also the most overall league matches (67) against Manchester United than versus any other opponent.
- This clash has seen 16 red cards shown in the Premier League – only Everton v Liverpool (21) has produced more dismissals.
- Only Steven Gerrard (8) has scored more goals in this Premier League fixture than Wayne Rooney (6 – level with Robbie Fowler).
- This could be Wayne Rooney’s 450th Premier League game, becoming the 21st player in Premier League history to reach this landmark.
- Manchester United had just 35% possession vs Liverpool at Anfield in October, their lowest total in a Premier League match since Opta began recording this data in 2003-04.
- Jurgen Klopp has lost just one of his six meetings with Jose Mourinho (W3 D2 L1), with that defeat coming in 2013 via a 2-0 away loss for Dortmund against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg.
- Juan Mata has had a hand in five goals in his last four appearances against Liverpool in the Premier League, scoring three and assisting two.
TEAM NEWS AND PREDICTED LINE-UPS
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3)
Manchester United top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be assessed, having missed the EFL Cup semi-final first-leg victory over Hull because of illness.
Marcos Rojo could also be back, but fellow defender Eric Bailly is at the Africa Cup of Nations.
De Gea; Valencia, Jones, Smalling, Blind; Carrick, Herrera, Pogba; Mkhitaryan, Ibrahimovic, Martial
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3)
Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho is expected to make his first league appearance since November after an ankle injury.
Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip are back in training and could feature. Sadio Mane is away on Africa Cup of Nations duty.
Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Matip, Milner; Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum; Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana
BETTING ODDS
MANCHESTER UNITED- 23/20
DRAW- 12/5
LIVERPOOL- 11/4
TRIVIA COURTESY- OPTA
