The wait to play after the international break may have felt agonisingly long but it will have felt even longer for Liverpool and Manchester United as they have the rarity of facing off in this titanic clash on a Monday night. Jurgen Klopp’s side go into this game in 4th place but should they be able to pull off a 3-0 with then they would manage to go top of the table by virtue of goals scored.
A 3-0 win would be a great result for Liverpool but you get the feeling that Klopp would be happy just to be able to get one over his side’s arch rivals as the Merseysiders have only won two league encounters against United over the past 5 years.
For United this game will take on early importance as defeat would see them sit a lowly 7th and 6 points off of the trio of league leaders while already 5 points away from a Champions League place, there’s plenty of football left to play but this would not be the start that Jose Mourinho would have imagined.
There’s no doubt that Liverpool come into this game with the better form as they are unbeaten in their last five with the last four being successive victories. That’s also not overlooking the fact that they have scored 14 goals during that unbeaten run, it’s fair to say that slowly but surely Jurgen Klopp is making this Liverpool side his own.
For United the elephant in the room otherwise known as Wayne Rooney will rear its head again, after getting dropped by England last week for their game in Slovenia, Mourinho will have to decide whether or not to bench Rooney as was the case in their home draw against Stoke before the international break.
Also United could do with Zlatan Ibrahimovic once again finding his scoring boots as he has failed to score in the last three league matches but with Ibrahimovic being such a big game player you wouldn’t be surprised if he was to get on the scoresheet tonight.
It will beg the question though as to whether or not Ibrahimovic and Rooney and for that matter Paul Pogba can play in the same lineup. It seems as if you can only accommodate any two at once in this United team, who if any will be the one to miss out. If I was a betting man then it would have to be Rooney.
The only weakness that Liverpool have shown this season is the fact that they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their opening seven league matches, this means that United will fancy their chances but it also means that Liverpool are more than capable of scoring one more than they let in.
Therefore this game promises to give us goals, more importantly though he will come out on top. With the form that Liverpool are in and the fact they are at home means they are favourites for me. I don’t think they’ll be going top of the table tonight but I do think they’ll end up joint on points with both Manchester City and Arsenal. A home win for me.