Liverpool manager Arne Slot says his team will not be fooled on Sunday by Manchester United’s lowly league position.
Who: Liverpool vs Manchester United
What: English Premier League
Where: Anfield, Liverpool, United Kingdom
When: 4:30pm (16:30 GMT) on Sunday
Follow Al Jazeera’s live text and photo build-up and commentary stream.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes struggling Manchester United are better than their place in the Premier League standings suggests, and said he does not plan to rest any players when the two teams clash at Anfield.
Liverpool top the table with 45 points and with a game in hand over the other title contenders. They are six points ahead of second-placed Arsenal, while United, with five losses in their last six league games, are languishing 14th with 22 points.
While United are no longer the force they were during the Alex Ferguson era, Slot was taken aback when asked if he plans to rest any of his key players for the match on Sunday.
“No. Of course not,” Slot said. “For me, they have much better players than maybe the league table shows at the moment. It might take a while for (manager) Ruben Amorim to bring this out of the players but they are much better than the league table shows.”
Liverpool still sweating on Alexander-Arnold, Salah and van Dijk futures
With regards to his own players, Slot insisted that defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is focused on his job despite speculation linking the defender, who is out of contract in the summer, with a move to Real Madrid.
Liverpool’s talisman Mohamed Salah is also out of contract, along with club captain Virgil van Dijk, and has said a new deal is “far away”. The Egyptian leads the league with 17 goals and combined with his 13 assists, his goal contributions add up to one every 53 minutes.
Asked if Salah is currently the best in the world, Slot said it is difficult to compare players.
“If I only look at my own team, Virgil (van Dijk) also has an outstanding season but he doesn’t have the numbers because he is a defender,” the manager said. “The numbers Mo has speak for themselves. If you simply look at the numbers and the way he’s playing, he’s definitely a great, great player.”
Slot’s men, who have lost only one game this season, beat Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford in September and United have just one victory over their rivals in their last 13 league meetings.
Slot had kind words for Amorim, who admitted after their 2-0 loss to Newcastle United on Monday that his team could be facing potential relegation.
“Every manager sympathises with every other manager,” Slot said. “We all know how much pressure this job brings. It is something we like. He’s done so well at Sporting and I think he has a good squad of players so he will eventually bring the best out of them.”
Manchester United need “leaders” on the field to reverse recent run
Amorim, meantime, says Manchester United are “starving for leaders” during a turbulent period.
United will be able to welcome back skipper Bruno Fernandes at Anfield, after he was suspended for Monday’s dismal 2-0 defeat to Newcastle, while the club has triggered an option to extend former captain Harry Maguire’s contract by a year until 2026.
Defender Maguire, 31, joined the club from Leicester in 2019 and his deal was set to expire at the end of the season.
“I spoke with him (Maguire) this morning and I told him he has to improve on the pitch, we need him a lot,” Amorim said on Friday.
“Also, he has to improve as a leader. We all know the situation that he had here (losing the captaincy and falling down the pecking order) but we need him a lot in this moment, so we are going to trigger, happily, the option for him.”
Amorim added: “When you look at our team we are starving for leaders on the pitch. He is a leader.”
United have lost four consecutive games and have also been knocked out of the League Cup in their recent wretched run.
The two most successful clubs in English football history could not be heading into Sunday’s match in more contrasting fashion with Liverpool closing in on United’s record of 20 English top-flight titles, despite Arsenal narrowing the gap to six points following their win at Brentford on Wednesday.
United last won at Anfield nine years ago and have suffered 4-0 and 7-0 thrashings in two of their past three visits.
Amorim, though, is hoping that some rare time on the training pitch this week will help his team.
“In football, in one game anything can happen,” he said. “If you talk about the season, then almost every time the best team wins.
“In the moment they are better than us but we can win any game. We have to focus not on the context but the performance. We have to improve the simple things.
“Of course, it is a difficult moment because we are losing too many matches and we are going to be facing the best team of this year, but, like I said, with training, we prepare more the team and we want to improve the performance compared to the last game.”
Amad Diallo has been United’s one source of optimism during a tough first two months of Amorim’s reign.
The Ivorian is close to agreeing a new long-term deal at Old Trafford according to the Portuguese coach.
Liverpool team news
Joe Gomez faces a spell on the sidelines after being ruled out for at least two weeks with the hamstring injury that forced him off in the win against West Ham.
Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate have, however, both resumed training as part of the first-team squad to bolster the defence. Dominik Szoboszlai, meantime, returns following a one-match ban.
Predicted lineup:
Alisson Becker; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson; Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Mohamed Salah, Curtis Jones, Cody Gakpo; Luis Díaz.
Manchester United team news
Marcus Rashford, who has been heavily linked with a move away from the club, will miss the due to illness.
United do welcome back Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte from suspension. Victor Lindelof, Mason Mount and Luke Shaw are all sidelined through injury.
Predicted lineup:
Andre Onana; Lisandro Martinez, Matthijs de Ligt, Harry Maguire; Diogo Dalot, Manuel Ugarte, Kobbie Mainoo, Noussair Mazraoui; Bruno Fernandes, Amad Diallo; Rasmus Hojlund.
Head-to-head
This is the 216th meeting between English football’s fiercest rivals, with Manchester United winning on 83 occasions, while Liverpool have emerged victorious in 73 of the encounters.
United’s only win in the last five meetings came in the FA Cup last season in a dramatic 4-3 win at Old Trafford.
Their last league win was a 2-1 home win in August 2022 – their only top-flight success against the Reds in 13 games. The last win at Anfield for United was in March 2015, when Juan Mata netted a brace before Daniel Sturridge pulled one back for the home side.
