Liverpool v Manchester United LIVE: Team information and line-ups as Konate and Jones begin Premier League conflict
Liverpool host Manchester United in the Premier League this afternoon as the league leaders looking to extend their lead at the top of the table, with the fixture set to go ahead despite heavy snow overnight.
A second safety meeting was held just before midday to determine whether the clash could be staged at Anfield after an amber weather warning was issued for much of the north of England. And the go-ahead was given with the situation improving in the city after runways had earlier been closed at both Manchester Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport amid widespread travel disruption.
With the fixture on, Arne Slot’s side will be looking to further seize control of the title race. More dropped points for Arsenal yesterday only strengthens Liverpool’s position with a game still in hand on their rivals. Things are rather less buoyant at Old Trafford at the moment with the arrival of Ruben Amorim not transforming Manchester United’s fortunes. The visitors have won just two league matches since he took over in November, with recent losses to Wolves and Newcastle illustrating the scale of the job on the Portuguese’s hands.
Follow all the latest news from Anfield in our live blog below:
Liverpool vs Manchester United LIVE
The two sides are about to take their places in the Anfield tunnel now. Not long to go before kick-off!
Match facts
Following their 3-0 win at Old Trafford in the reverse fixture, Arne Slot could become just the second Liverpool manager to do the league double over Manchester United in his first season with the club, after George Kay in 1936-37.
Mohamed Salah has been involved in 30 Premier League goals this season for Liverpool (17 goals, 13 assists), scoring and assisting in eight different games – already the most by a player in a single campaign ever.
How Ruben Amorim can use the past to kickstart Man Utd’s ‘mission’ at Liverpool
It is yet another of those moments where Ruben Amorim is trying to create a new future, only for history – and a more problematic present – to impose on events.
The Manchester United manager won’t use Marcus Rashford for a seventh successive game, after the England forward was ruled out for Sunday due to illness. There was considerable doubt over whether Amorim would have played him anyway but the prospect did weigh over Liverpool’s preparation, since Rashford is one player even Arne Slot’s most experienced defenders had a certain trepidation about. The 27-year-old has scored more times against Liverpool than any other club, with seven goals, and many of those have been big moments for different managers.
One was the crucial clincher in a 2-1 win that was also Erik ten Hag’s first victory as United manager.
Match facts
Liverpool have won their last three Premier League matches, scoring 3+ goals in each victory with 14 goals in total. They last had a longer winning run while scoring three or more goals in each win in February/March 2014 (six in a row).
Manchester United have lost their last three Premier League games. They haven’t lost four league games in a row in the same season since between December and February 1979, while they last suffered four defeats in a row without scoring back in April 1909.
Manchester United can reverse damning decline with one missing quality: ‘We are starving’
If Amorim was imported to bring his brand of leadership, a youthful manager feels he has too few authority figures on the field. “When you look at our team, we are starving for leaders on the pitch,” said Amorim. If it was damning, United have some of the symptoms of teams who often lack leaders.
They can struggle to respond to setbacks. They concede goals in quick succession; two in three minutes to Bournemouth, in seven to Nottingham Forest, in nine to Tottenham. They sometimes lose their way in games. Over the last two years, they have suffered heavy defeats or lost matches when they had the pressure of being favourites. There are times when they lack control: it could be attributed in the past to the sacked Ten Hag’s chaotic tactics and more recently to a struggle to adapt to Amorim’s very different system.
Recent meetings: Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool
Rewind to the beginning of this season, and a hopeful Manchester United hosted Arne Slot’s new Liverpool side at Old Trafford.
Less was known about the Dutchman at this point in the season, but his side produced a brilliant performance to take a 3-0 away win in what was also one of the major steps towards United sacking Erik ten Hag.
Two mistakes from Casemiro helped Liverpool on the way, with Luis Diaz bagging a first-half brace before Mo Salah finished the game off in the 56th minute.
Liverpool have hardly looked back, losing just one game since.
Liverpool’s vision revealed by Arne Slot and Ruben Amorim’s key difference
Jurgen Klopp dropped his bombshell, he later revealed, in November 2023. In January 2024, he went public. Liverpool’s search for a manager could begin; not publicly, given their preference for doing their business as quietly as possible, but at least with one layer of secrecy removed.
They were soon informed that Xabi Alonso was minded to stay at Bayer Leverkusen for another year. To many in the wider world, Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim assumed a status as the frontrunner after that. Not so, Liverpool would say; he was merely one of several they looked into. There was no preferred choice, they insist, until they alighted on Feyenoord’s Arne Slot. But he seemed to emerge from the shadows. The high-profile nature of the Portuguese’s candidacy contrasted with the low-key approach adopted by Slot. He got the job by stealth, almost without warning.
Five months after he might have done, Amorim will make it to Anfield on Sunday; but in charge of Manchester United. A meeting of managerial opposites has given them very different experiences in charge of England’s two biggest clubs. Slot has had the smoothest of starts at Liverpool, Amorim the rockiest of beginnings at United. Slot has taken his team to the top of the Premier League and Champions League tables. Amorim has warned his new employers are at risk of dropping into the Championship. “This club needs a shock,” he said on Monday.
Ruben Amorim admits Manchester United players are ‘anxious and afraid’ ahead of Liverpool clash
Amorim had warned after the 4-0 win over Everton at the start of December that the “storm will come” and so it has proven as United have lost their last three league games by conceding seven and scoring none.
Match facts
Liverpool have lost just one of their last 13 Premier League games against Manchester United (W7 D5), going down 2-1 at Old Trafford in August 2022.
United haven’t won any of their last eight league away games against Liverpool (D4 L4), their longest such run since a run of nine between 1970 and 1979. They have scored just one goal in their last eight Premier League away games against Liverpool, failing to score in each of the last five.
Slot addresses rumours
Arne Slot had plenty of rumours to address in his press conference, and he started by saying that Alexander-Arnold “is playing on Sunday and hopefully he brings the same performance that he has done for the first half of the season.
“I see the way he is in training and he is fully committed to us,” he added.
On van Dijk, he said: “He is a complete player. He is the one that leads the team from start to finish. From the moment I blow my whistle on the training ground, he is the one player that you can always hear. He brings a lot of positive energy.”
On Salah: “I think it’s difficult to compare players. If I only look at my own team, Virgil also has an outstanding season but he doesn’t have the numbers because he is a defender. 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.”
He added: “It is always important that you have players or staff players that know how to work things. But we are here at one of the best clubs in the world so it is normal that we have players that have won things in their career.”
