All joking aside, it would be incredibly foolish of this Liverpool side to assume that three points is a certainty against an admittedly dire Manchester United side.
Gary Neville perhaps put it best when noting that this current iteration of the Red Devils contained ‘low-quality players lacking confidence’ ahead of a worrying trip to Anfield.
One might reasonably imagine the visitors will have been keeping a very close eye on the Met Office updates as both clubs assessed whether the tie in question would go ahead.
Nonetheless, as Arne Slot has already noted – there’s no such thing as an “easy” Premier League game.
If there’s any clash that should motivate even a severely poor Red Devils outfit, this, theoretically, should be the one to light a fire under Ruben Amorim’s men.
If not, this could very well end up being another bloodbath.
Ibrahima Konate makes a surprise return to the starting-XI despite his recent escape from the treatment room.
The French international had been sidelined with a knee injury sustained in the closing stages of our remarkable 2-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Given the footballer had only trained with the club for the first time on Friday, it’s quite the show of faith from Arne Slot to throw our No.5 back into the mix.
Elsewhere, the Echo’s Ian Doyle confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that Dominik Szoboszlai will miss out on the tie entirely owing to illness.
You can catch the full team news below, courtesy of @LFC on X:
The Reds to take on Manchester United #LIVMUN
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 5, 2025
A win against Manchester United would see us extend our lead at the top of the table to eight points ahead of Arsenal in second.
Assuming we eventually manage to secure maximum points from our remaining game in hand, that lead would extend to a sizeable 11 points.
It’s still far too early to call the title as far as we’re concerned, but it’s a potentially wonderful bit of breathing room in the second half of the campaign.
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