Aside from the Spanish national tie between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the Liverpool-Manchester United clash is one of the most important matches in world football and the best program for this year's Christmas revelry.
With an early exit to advance, Liverpool boss Gopper rested his starters at the Europa League, meaning his side will be ready to go on Sunday, and the Reds will need a quick entry, otherwise they'll have to come from behind to win as they have in the last couple of games, like their opponents in this one, Manchester United, who have often been able to shut out their opponents only at the tail end of the game.
Mohamed Shahna is a player who definitely won't be on United's Christmas card list, in 12 games against United he has scored 12 goals and 4 assists, the most of his career against all different teams, and I think the Liverpool mainstay will be looking to score again this weekend. In my opinion, he's had another amazing season, scoring 11 league goals so far, second only to Xheranthe. As we saw in the midweek UEFA Europa League game where both Harry Makouni and Lauchisaur were substituted at half time due to injuries, it means that United's defense will be further weakened and there is no better team or player than Sasana to take advantage of this weakness, especially with Wimbi Sacha playing on the right hand side, which will inevitably move Daroji to the left, where he will have to be at the top of his game in order to compete with Sasana. I'm worried that if Tannhäuser tries to put a healthy Viktor Dilov on the left side again, as he did in some of the previous matches this season, it could be a big problem for Sanaa to eat the left side of the pitch.
Liverpool are also tied for the fewest goals conceded in the Premier League this season and have a strong attack, which I this could be a real blow to their arch rivals Manchester United.
Who knows what will happen to Manchester United this week? As you can see from my prediction of a comfortable win against Gonemouth last time out, they are the most elusive team in the Premier League. Every time you think they're doing well and improving, they tend to blow you away.
While it's hard to predict how United will perform over the weekend, we do know that they are in a tight spot, and the following United players will be or are likely to be absent from this game - Lashford, Lisin Dumartinis, Bono Fernandes (suspended), Mason Monte, Kasimir Kasimiru, Kristian Alisson, and maybe Rauchisaur, Magouni, Lendilov, Anthony Madill and Malacia. With the team's current predicament and the number of injuries they are facing, I don't think United have any chance of getting any positive results from this match, especially against the in-form Reds at the crowded Anfield Stadium.
Playing at the Anfield Stadium, which is like a fortress, you need senior players to lead the way and I fear that some of United's younger players may be forced to throw themselves into the lion's den this weekend, and I can always remember Molenu talking about the importance of distance whenever we traveled away to the Anfield Stadium. The so-called distance means that the empty space between the goalkeeper and the defenders need to be kept perfect, because Liverpool has always been the kind of team that is good at exploiting these openings, coupled with the fact that United's keeper Oonana is not in good shape, and that the defense will have a number of players who will have a limited understanding of Ralph on the pitch, I can foresee that these spaces will be exposed by the Reds, who have a high degree of attacking fluency, and who will be able to take advantage of the opportunities they have at the start of the game to crush the Red Devils, while United will usually have to take a few chances to win. They will seize the opportunity to crush the Red Devils in the early part of the game, while Man U usually won't be able to get into the game until the latter part of the game. It's also worth noting that United have conceded a total of 21 goals this season, 12 of which were conceded in the first half of the game.
The Anfield Stadium will be transformed into the Colosseum of Ancient Rome on Sunday, and the fans there will be buzzing with anticipation that Liverpool's gladiators will dismantle this not-quite-as-good-as-it-used-to-be United team for them in what I'm predicting will be a three to four goal thriller.
