Man Utd v Liverpool: Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jamie Redknapp preview
Sunday 15 January 2017 15:25, UK
"The biggest game in English football."
Manchester United take on Liverpool live on Sky Sports on Sunday and we have got analysis and opinion from the likes of Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness on the game.
Here's a round-up of what the Sky Sports pundits are saying about the Manchester v Merseyside match-up...
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Souness: When you’re involved, you think it’s the biggest game in England you can be involved in. I’m no longer involved directly, but I still believe that.
It’s the hype surrounding it, the dislike the teams have for each other, and that extends to the vast majority of supporters on both sides. It’s totally understandable because they’re the two most successful teams in the history of the English game, and they’re such close neighbours.
Liverpool have to get firing on all cylinders again, and they’re playing against a United side who, without being a great watch, are grinding results out.
It’s always the case with United, if they get on a roll, momentum builds up and they will take some stopping.
Neville: Four or five weeks ago you’d have said Liverpool would be favourites, but now you would probably say United were. It hasn’t been like that for the last few months and I’m interested to see how United handle that.
The fascinating thing about this game is the mentality. What is the mentality of Liverpool? Will they go into this game thinking they don’t want to lose and let United cut the gap to two points or are they thinking they can move eight points clear and put United to bed?
I’m sure the attitude of the manager will be to go eight points clear, but will his team be able to go out at Old Trafford and believe what their manager believes? That’s a big test for them. With the tiredness and the disruption to their training over the last couple of weeks, can they get it out of their minds and put a big gap between themselves and United?
Carragher: This is always a huge game, but right now these are two teams who have maybe got outside chances for the title and are both right in the mix for top-four places.
Manchester United are probably the most in-form team in the Premier League and are a different proposition to when the two sides met at Anfield earlier this season, while Liverpool have hit a little bump in the road and need to get back on track. Both teams have plenty to play for.
A lot depends on how Liverpool deal with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is playing as well as anyone in the Premier League right now. He has been scoring goals and Liverpool continue to concede them, so that is a area.
Jamie Redknapp: With nine wins in a row, it feels like Manchester United have hit form at a good time. Before their turnaround, Jose Mourinho looked really unhappy and I was beginning to get worried about them, but in the last few weeks he has been transformed.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been a big part of it. He had a difficult start to life at Old Trafford, but I think back to their game against Tottenham in December as a big moment in their season.
I remember covering that game and thinking Spurs could easily go there and get a draw, but Mkhitaryan came into the United team and he lifted the place. He added that extra quality and scored an excellent goal.
Everyone has their own opinion and Jamie Carragher said at the time that it was good management by Mourinho to hold Mkhitaryan back, but I felt the opposite. I thought it showed what position they might have been in if he had been playing.
Danny Higginbotham: A lot of the recent talk concerning Manchester United has been about Michael Carrick. Everything goes through him. He brings the best out of the players around him and he gives licence to the likes of Pogba, Herrera, Mata and Mkhitaryan to go up and support Ibrahimovic.
I’m just wondering how Liverpool will go about dealing with that. The one thing that Jurgen Klopp might not want to do is to allow Carrick to get on the ball in deep areas.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Klopp told his players that when Manchester United have got the ball in deep positions, they have to go man-for-man on Carrick and stop him because he’s the player that makes things happen for United.
Watch Man Utd v Liverpool live on Sky Sports in Ultra HD on Sunday.
