Manchester United versus Liverpool has been deemed the England El Clasico by some, including the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson. The last two editions held at Anfield though were anything but classic, and instead resulted in dull, tedious goalless draws. United manager Jose Mourinho was content to park the bus at Merseyside during his last two visits, and hopefully he won’t do that again on Sunday.
While Mourinho received a lot of criticism for bunkering down the last two times on Anfield Road, his opposing counter part, Jurgen Klopp defended him, and maintained that the Portugese is one of the best managers in the world.
“I don’t think Jose Mourinho ever has a lack of ambition,” the Liverpool manager told his news conference today.
“He just does what he thinks is right, and he’s one of the most successful managers in the world. It was not a joy for us to play against them having this quality on the other side and then having the ball constantly all the time and trying to have an idea to go around.
“The boys tried everything but it didn’t work out. We all have a plan for the game, no problem with that.”
Let’s take a look at who might be in that team that Klopp has to game plan for.
The Bank MUFC Starting XI Prediction vs Liverpool (4-3-3)
Attack: Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku, Jesse Lingard
Midfielders: Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini
Defenders: Ashley Young, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Luke Shaw
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
Liverpool vs Manchester United FYIs
Kick-off: 4pm (BST), 11 am (EST), Sunday December 16th, Anfield
Odds via Bet365: Liverpool 4/7, Draw 3/1, Southampton 5/1
Jose Mourinho Press Conference Video:
Form guide: Liverpool- WLWWWW Manchester United- DWDDWL
Liverpool Starting XI Prediction, Jurgen Klopp Press Conference Video: go to this link
Injury Report: go to this link
Google Result Probability: Liverpool win 63%, Draw 22%, Manchester United 15%
Prediction: Liverpool 2, Manchester United 1
Feel free to post your own starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be. Enjoy the match everybody!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.