Who: Manchester United vs. Liverpool
What: English Premier League
Where: Anfield in Liverpool, United Kingdom
When: Sunday, October 19, at 4:30pm (15:30 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 2:30pm (13:30 GMT) in advance of our live text commentary stream.
Liverpool and Manchester United will play one of the most competitive derbies in a row on Sunday against the Premier League’s two most decorated clubs.
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Under Arne Slot, who won the Premier League title last season and led the Anfield team to victory in his first year in charge, the Reds have experienced their first setback.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson left the Red Devils in 2013, the club has been under constant strain, and despite improving performances, Ruben Amorim’s performance is still disappointing.
Al Jazeera Sport examines what seems like a must-win situation for the clubs, who have won and won the English top flight title on 22 occasions but find themselves at different points in their current plights.
How will Liverpool prepare for a visit to Man Utd?
After a three-game losing streak, Liverpool manager Arne Slot called for defensive improvements ahead of Manchester United’s visit, saying “results don’t lie.”
The Premier League champions’ seven games of the season were won in all competitions, but a string of late goals tarnished their performances.
Before the international break, Liverpool lost to Chelsea, Galatasaray, and Crystal Palace, leaving them one point behind title rivals Arsenal.
After winning the title last year, Liverpool spent nearly 450 million pounds ($604 million) on signing new players, including Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, both of whom have neither yet scored a Premier League goal.
In four of Slot’s side’s seven Premier League games, the team has conceded two or more goals.
We’ve won seven games, lost three, and played ten. At his pre-game press conference on Friday, Slot stated that the three losses were “by close margins.”
“But as I keep saying, we shouldn’t be dependent on such margins,” I say.
Results don’t lie; if you lose three in a row, you need to do better. We are aware of that and must take action.
What has been the biggest challenge for Liverpool this year?
Mohamed Salah led Liverpool to the title last season thanks to his outstanding form, but the 33-year-old Egyptian has struggled to adapt to the changes made to the side since the transfer window.
Slot cited problems at set pieces and a lack of game-changing opportunities from his star-studded forward line.
We haven’t created as many chances as we did last season, and the opponent’s playing style forces us to come up with solutions, he said.
The first response was to concede more goals than we did. We need three goals if a team scores one or two goals.
“We primarily scored these goals in the first half of last year from a memorable moment for one of our front three,” said the coach. Set pieces against a low block were necessary for the second half.
We haven’t scored from set pieces this season, and we haven’t had those special moments.
A team that wants to compete is clearly far too likely to concede four goals from set pieces.
Mohamed Salah has six goals in ten games this season for Liverpool, which is acceptable for most, but for a player of his caliber, that is considered underperforming.
Salah has just four non-penalty goals in his last 24 games, totaling just 24. #LFC pic. twitter.com/DA4Uqi9b7J
How will Manchester United prepare for their trip to Liverpool?
Ruben Amorim, the manager of Manchester United, has welcomed Jim Ratcliffe’s backing, but he claimed it did not relieve the pressure of needing to quickly turn around his team’s fortunes.
Despite having a difficult first year in charge, Ratcliffe argued during the international break that Amorim should be given the full three years of his contract to demonstrate his worth at Old Trafford.
Prior to the match at Anfield, Amorim had never won back-to-back Premier League games, recording only 10 victories out of his first 34 as manager.
He has been under pressure because of that, but Ratcliffe, who hired him last year, gave some reassurance in an interview with The Times last week.
In his news conference on Friday, Amorim said, “He always tells me, sometimes with a message after games,” but you know, I know and Jim knows that football is not that.
“It’s really encouraging to hear that.” It enables our fans to understand that the leadership is aware that it will take some time, in my opinion.
“But I don’t like that because it will make us feel like we have time to work things out,” I also don’t want that feeling in our club. Although it’s encouraging to see the support, we must also demonstrate to others that we are game-ready. I’m aware that it will take some time, but I don’t want to think in that way.
United are currently in 10th place in the table, five points clear of Liverpool, who finished last season in the bottom half of the Premier League.
What transpired between Liverpool and Manchester United last time?
The teams drew 2-2 with Liverpool last year, which Amorim arguably considered Amorim’s most impressive result since taking over, and other respectable displays against prestigious clubs have come at the expense of the former Sporting coach, who claims that raises a mentality issue.
Maybe it’s because of the expectations and responsibility of winning, he said.
You must win every game when playing for a lot of clubs. Sometimes it’s challenging to play with that responsibility. We need to change that, even if Manchester United are not expected to win.
When did Liverpool last give Manchester United a win?
Few people will think that will change in United’s 100th game between the old rivals at Liverpool’s ground on Sunday, even though they are on a run of three defeats in all competitions.
Asmorim remarked, “This is one more game that we need to demonstrate our ability to play better.” In both areas, we must excel. We must win one more game, I believe.
Head-to-head
With Manchester United winning on 83 of the encounters, Liverpool have won 72 of them, making it their 218th one.
When Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford put the home team in the lead at Old Trafford in 2022, Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a late consolation, United won the league game.
Since then, United have lost three of their five league games, but they did defeat Liverpool to win the FA Cup in 2024.
news from the Liverpool team
Alisson Becker is still out with a hamstring injury, but Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch is still fit to face United despite being injured for the Netherlands during the international break.
Team news for Manchester United
Wessair Mazraoui is doubtful, while Lisandro Martinez is recovering from a knee injury.
Liverpool had a starting lineup in mind.
Mamardashvili, Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Salah, Wirtz, Ekitike, Isak, and others.
Manchester United’s lineup was anticipated.
Source: Aljazeera
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