Manchester United have only three fitness concerns heading into the weekend, when they’ll host Liverpool in the FA Cup 4th round. Only one of those players (Victor Lindelof) is a first teamer, and the other two are fringe players. That means United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could do some squad rotation on Sunday.
He doesn’t seem to name the same team in back to back games, so in looking at the team that won at Fulham on Wednesday, here’s what we think we’ll see against the rival Reds.
Manchester United at Liverpool FA Cup 4th Round FYIs
Kick off: 5:00 pm GMT, Sun. Jan 24
Starting XI Predictions: United Liverpool
TV: BBC
Key Stat: United’s most common opponent in this competition is Liverpool, as they’ve met 17 times previously
Series History: United wins 88 times, Liverpool wins 77, Draws 68
Liverpool are really struggling right now, and manager Jurgen Klopp will be focused on the trying to right his ship in league play, so they might rotate their side as well. It’s quite possible that this affair will look very different from what we saw last weekend.
Not that that’s a bad thing! Look for United to lineup in a 4-2-3-1.
Manchester United Starting XI Prediction vs Liverpool (FA Cup 4th Round)
Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Telles; Fred, Pogba; Martial, Matic, James; Rashford
Prediction: United 1, Liverpool 0
Recent trends, with both sides, just screams 1-0 Red Devils win; at least to us it does.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.