Manchester United face their bitterest rivals in Liverpool on Sunday at Old Trafford in the 4p.m. kick-off. The first game between the 2 sides ended in a 0-0 stalemate back on October 17th at Anfield. The first fixture was a cagey affair with neither team wanting to make the first mistake and Jose certainly used a pretty defensive tactical plan that day as he really did not want lose the match. United were a team looking for an identity then and were on a run of 8 League games played with 6 draws (including the Liverpool 0-0), 1 win ( a 3-1 win over struggling Swansea City) and 1 loss (a humiliating 4-0 thumping at the hands of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea). So it is safe to say things are just a bit different almost 3 months on.
United have been transformed by the emergence of a certain Henrik Mkhitaryan and the return to top form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has only gone and scored 13 goals in his first 19 Premier League appearances for Manchester United and that included a dry spell of 7 games without a goal in the League at the end of October/beginning of November. Only Ruud van Nistelrooy with 15 goals in his first 19 League games for United has a better record. The form of Mata, Herrera, Rashford, Pogba and Jones plus many other squad members cannot be ignored when it comes to why United are playing so much better and have assumed Jose Mourinho’s famous confident air which the manager has made his name with. Jose too now knows his squad so much better and has started to effect the game with his substitutions instinctively knowing what he needs to do to change the match in his favour – such of a hallmark of his management at other clubs.
Looking at the recent history of this 50th such fixture, United have won 27 of the last 49 games played while Liverpool managed only winning 13 matches with 9 draws. Liverpool have only won 3 of their last 14 trips to Old Trafford in the Premier League with United winning 11 matches. Liverpool sit in 2nd on 44 points with United a further 5 points behind in 6th so a United win would mean so much.
Wayne Rooney will be playing in his 450th Premier League game if he is selected and what a way it could be to celebrate if he can score the goal to break Bobby Charlton’s all-time goal scoring record at the club. The “Special Juan” Mata (as we like to call him) enjoys playing against Liverpool as he has had a hand in 5 goals in his last 4 games vs Liverpool scoring 3 and assisting on 2 goals.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has a very fine record head-to-head against Jose Mourinho gained mostly while with his old Dortmund team. Klopp has won 3, drawn 2 and lost just once back in 2013 in the Champions League semi-final second leg, which Dortmund won on aggregate. So Jose will need to be at his tactical best to get one over on his German rival.
Liverpool will be missing Sadio Mané for this game and United will be without Eric Bailly due to their involvement in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations – a big miss for both sides. Key man – Phillipe Coutinho is back in full training and should play vs United so Mourinho will be well aware of the threat the Brazilian poses. The good news for United is that top-scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic should be recovered from his illness in time to lead the line for United against Liverpool and that is why we expect the Red-Devils to continue their 9 game winning run and to come out 2-1 winners on the day as they close in on the top 4.