Manchester United v Liverpool
Sunday December 14th, 2014 | Kick-Off: 13:30 GMT | Coverage: Live on Sky Sports 1.
So here we are again; United away. One of a handful of fixtures each season that evoke a combination of excitement, anticipation – and utter dread. These are the games that every supporter – from either end of the M62 – looks for when the fixtures are released each July, and yet find themselves watching through their fingers, with their heart in their mouth and their mood for the foreseeable future balanced on the most precarious of knife edges. Only ever one precise swing of Danny Murphys right foot at the Stretford End from ecstasy, and a flex of Mikael Silvestre’s neck muscles from crushing despair. You don’t enjoy these fixtures for the most part, you endure them. And yet you fucking love them too, because, well, what better feeling is there than to stand amongst the enemy and stare adversity in the eye, outnumbered but defiant? These games and the raw, animalistic emotions that they engender are what makes football unique and so truly addictive. It’s what keeps us coming back week after week, year after year, in spite of the increasing alienation felt by many. These are the games that matter, that are remembered – provided you win, of course. The result isn’t just the main thing, it’s the only thing. Okay, if you can smash Gary Neville into the third row in the process, then that’s great too, but first and foremost you just have to win. Whatever it takes. There is no alternative. And so it is once more come Sunday afternoon.
Heading into this game, neither side could claim to be performing well. Quite the opposite, in fact, and yet, both sides will enter the Old Trafford pitch boasting five match unbeaten runs. For United, five straight wins has seen them rise to third in the league. Performances aside, they are the team from amongst the mediocre majority to have discovered some semblance of consistency amid the chaos of this Premier League season, and with it, an increasing belief that a return to the Champions League is there to be taken. And it really is, for anyone able to do the same. They’re gathering momentum though, and that will be providing as much hope in Manchester as it is concern on Merseyside.
For Liverpool, the five game unbeaten run has been punctuated with three draws and a sense of missed opportunity. Having managed back-to-back wins for only the second time this season, the Reds followed that up with a drab stalemate at home to Sunderland and an equally placid performance in the midweek draw with Basel that saw them exit the Champions League at the first hurdle. The results, while clearly disappointing, are far from the main concern. The performance and mentality of the team – and by extension, the manager – are what alarms most. The current rigidity and lack of adventure, the kind of which has been unseen since the dark days of Hodgson, hints towards a manager who has lost sight of his own ideals. Those same ideals will need to be located for this fixture too, because let us be clear on this; United remain vulnerable. That defence especially. It’s vitally important for Liverpool and for Brendan Rodgers therefore, that they offer themselves the greatest opportunity and approach this game in a positive manner, because should the Liverpool coach depart Manchester on Sunday evening on the back of a 7th league defeat, there will exist a ten point deficit between these two teams, and you’re then approaching the realms of unassailability. A staggering thought, considering the position the two teams occupied on Liverpool’s previous visit here, just eight months ago.
The key difference between United and Liverpool this season can be found at either end of the field. While David De Gea has reinforced his reputation as one of the top goalkeepers in the country, and one of the most promising in Europe, Simon Mignolet’s confidence has crumbled to the finest of dusts. In attack, the likes of Van Persie, Rooney and Di Maria have offered the clinical edge that currently resides on the Melwood treatment table. In United’s recent victories over Southampton and Arsenal, for example, they mustered just four shots on targets in total. All four however, found the net, and they won both games. Ultimately, how you’re performing at both points of the field will have an immeasurable impact on your results, if not necessarily the overall performances. In between though, there’s little to choose between them – or Arsenal for that matter. An under-performing collective within an often malfunctioning system. Both managers on the touchline at Old Trafford will be aiming to change that.
Team News:
Manchester United
After withdrawing through injury in Monday nights victory at Southampton, Chris Smalling has added his name to an injury list that (along with Luke Shaw, Phil Jones and Rafael) now arguably contains the clubs first choice back four. Angel Di Maria is another name currently on that list, with the influential attacker unlikely to recover from a hamstring injury in time for this one.
Out: Smalling (Groin), Shaw (Ankle), Blind (Knee), Jones (Calf), Lingard (Knee).
Doubtful: Rafael (Groin), Di Maria (Hamstring).
Liverpool
A groin injury sustained in last Saturdays stalemate at home to Sunderland is expected to keep Kolo Toure on the sidelines. Mamadou Sakho featured amongst the substitutes against Basel in mid-week and will be pushing for a recall. Daniel Sturridge, Mario Balotelli and Jon Flanagan all remain unavailable.
Out: Sturridge (Thigh), Suso (Groin), Flanagan (Knee), Balotelli (Groin), Toure (Groin).
Doubtful: N/A.
Likely Lineups:
Prediction:
Discussing this game with a United supporting friend this last week, the often used cliche of form books going out of the window was predictably aired. All I could think at that point was; How big is this book (if the form guide for every team on the planet is included, which it presumably must be)? And by extension, how big must the window be – and who leaves it open in this of all weather!? In my head I immediately conjured an image of a small army wrapped in arctic attire, possibly with the addition of a woolly mammoth or two, manning some form of medieval catapult. Whoever is subsequently sent to keep retrieving said book, just for it to be flung straight back out, must be as sick of this very image as we are the cliche. Poor bastard.
Anyway, he’s right of course, despite the excessively used cliche and my overly active imagination. These fixtures are impossible to predict. There will be commitment. That’s guaranteed. Anything less would not be tolerated. Not here. Not in this fixture. The pocket of Liverpool supporters up in the clouds of Old Trafford will also be loud, proud and defiant. You can be sure of that, too. Beyond that though, is little more than a guess. For Liverpool, everything rests on how they emerge from the tunnel in terms of system and mentality, and by extension therefore, all eyes, once again, will be on Brendan Rodgers. If we see the Liverpool of the final period on Tuesday evening against Basel, full of intensity, aggression and attacking intent, then the red masses heading up the M62 should enter enemy territory with confidence. If the current United defence are put under pressure, they will buckle. They’ve proven that during the course of this season already. If however, we see the rigid, unambitious and unimaginitive Liverpool that has been present for the vast majority of the previous two months, then confidence becomes fear, because United do possess quality as well as a clinical edge, and you certainly wouldn’t back this Liverpool back line to repel them if the the door is left open for them to attack at will.
Brendan Rodgers has to get this one right.
As Kevin Keegan once famously said of United; “I will love it if we beat them! Love it!”. And we will. And we must. Whatever it takes. There is no alternative.
Manchester United 1-2 Liverpool
The Grobbelramble 