MATCH PREVIEW: Manchester United V Liverpool

Image via Liverpool Echo
Liverpool face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday evening in their first game since the international break. After suffering defeat at the hands of West Ham a fortnight ago the Reds will need to get back on track as quickly as possible but faced with one of their fiercest rivals, it is going to be a difficult night for manager Brendan Rodgers.

The headline in terms of injury/player news has to be circled around the story that De Gea who at one point this summer was about to have dinner with Rafael Benitez is now apparently signing his life away to Manchester United. I just don't get it. What I do get though is that De Gea is a good keeper and you can guarantee that he will have a massive say in Saturday's result (if van Gaal decides to start him).

Injury wise for Liverpool, we have received a bit of a boost as Daniel Sturridge has finally returned to training, he will however be unavailable for the fixture. Doubts are also hanging over both Lallana and Henderson who are racing for fitness in order to feature in this huge tie. Joe Allen is also unavailable, out with a hamstring injury. Most importantly for Liverpool though is the fact that they will be unable to call upon the influential Philippe Coutinho who is suspended.

For Manchester United they are relatively strong squad wise with just Phil Jones unavailable and Michael Carrick looking unlikely to start as he nurses a calf injury.

The last time the two sides met was in March this year, I was in Mexico and having awoken at 6am to travel to Hooters in the centre of Cancun as they were the only place showing the soddin' match I was dismayed to say the least after watching Steven Gerrard get sent off and us lose 2-1. I won't forget that match in a hurry I'll tell ya!

Prior to this, the fixture at Old Trafford last season didn't end well either as Liverpool were on the end of a 3-0 defeat. Our record at Old Trafford of course isn't fantastic however we did collect all three points in March 2014 thanks to two Steven Gerrard penalties and a Luis Suarez goal in the 84th minute.

In all competitions, Liverpool have won just twice in their last ten visits to Old Trafford. Despite this and even when the scoreline sometimes appears embarrassing the sheer passion that the fixture bubbles up usually ensures that the Reds put on a performance and I am hoping that tomorrow will be no different. I don't however anticipate a good result, we're struggling for goals and although our performance against Arsenal was enviable I'm not sure we will be able to replicate that at Old Trafford.

The plus side of course is that United haven't necessarily been playing brilliantly themselves having lost to Swansea prior to the international break and managing just a 0-0 draw with Newcastle beforehand.

Stat Sandwich
  • Liverpool have won just one of their last seven away matches in the Premier League.
  • Manchester United have lost just one of their last 10 Premier League games at Old Trafford.
  • If the Reds fail to find the back of the net it will be the first time they haven't scored for three league matches consecutively since 2005.
I don't want to be negative and I'm usually pretty optimistic (I'll still be sat in the pub pretending we can win the thing) however I don't think it's going to end well tomorrow and I'm predicting a 2-0 loss. I'll definitely be having some bets so just keep an eye on my Twitter if you want to see what I waste my money on haha!

I asked you for your score predictions on Twitter and here are a few of the tweets I received, thanks to all who replied.
Enjoy the match folks, wherever you are watching!

P.s. Voting for this year's Football Blogging Awards is NOW OPEN

I was chuffed to bits when I won Best Female Blog in 2012 and Best Female Blog voted for by the fans in 2014 however this year there is no longer a "Female" category.

So, seen as though I am now in my 7th year of blogging about our wonderful Liverpool FC I have decided to enter the "Established" category.

If you could take two seconds to tweet this: "I'm voting in @TheFBAs for @LFCKirstyLFC
as the Best #Established Football Blog" I'd really appreciate it!