Man U vs. Liverpool
Venue: Old Trafford
Kick off: 6PM
Just seven days after playing out an anticlimactic goalless draw in the Premier League, bitter rivals Manchester United and Liverpool will renew hostilities in the FA Cup fourth round this evening.
Liverpool travel to Old Trafford in the midst of their worst goal drought for almost 20 years, whereas the hosts are flying high and now have a six-point lead over the champions at the top of the Premier League table.
The pre-match hype for this latest chapter of English football’s greatest rivalry may be scaled back compared to their top-of-the-table Premier League clash last weekend, but today’s showdown promises to be a significant occasion in its own right.
A place in the fifth round of the FA Cup is up for grabs, and both teams would relish being able to knock their biggest rivals out of the running for a major piece of silverware.
The game could prove to be even more important in the grand scheme of the season, though, with Man United currently on a firm and unerring upward trajectory whereas Liverpool are trending in the opposite direction.
The Premier League champions slumped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of relegation-threatened Burnley on Thursday night, a result which not only extended their winless league run to five games and goal drought to four games, but also saw them surrender a 68-match unbeaten league run at Anfield – the second-longest run in English football history.
For the run to be ended by a team that went into that game as the top flight’s lowest scorers was undoubtedly a shock, but the warning signs had been there in previous games for Liverpool.
Since hitting Crystal Palace for seven before Christmas, Liverpool have scored just once in their last five league games and have failed to find the back of the net in any of their last four – their longest drought since May 2000.
Indeed, the Reds have had a whopping 87 shots since last scoring in the league – including 27 against Burnley – but the concerning element of that will be that only a handful of those shots have come in clear-cut chances.
Heading into this game – and indeed looking ahead to a run which sees five of their next six top-flight games come against teams currently in the top seven – Jurgen Klopp may take some encouragement from the fact that Liverpool’s best spell of football during this recent slump came in the opening half an hour of their last meeting with Manchester United.
The Reds failed to capitalise on that spell of dominance, though, and ultimately left Anfield thankful for Alisson Becker preventing them from losing to the current league leaders.
The FA Cup could provide a welcome distraction from those league woes, and Liverpool’s only goals and only win so far in 2021 came in the third round of the competition.
The Reds also have a notoriously poor record in the FA Cup during Klopp’s tenure, only making it past the fourth round for the first time last season.
Man United, by contrast, have not failed to make it to at least the quarter-finals since 2013-14, and in a stark reflection of the differing fortunes of these two clubs in recent months, many will consider them to be favourites to progress again.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side edged to a 1-0 victory over Watford in the third round, making it seven wins and seven clean sheets from their last seven home FA Cup outings.
In all competitions Man United have now lost just one of their last 12 outings since being knocked out of the Champions League, most recently coming from behind away from home yet again to overcome Fulham on Wednesday night.
Inspired by another wonder goal from the rejuvenated Paul Pogba, Man United answered questions posed by both Leicester City and Manchester City, both of whom had climbed above the Red Devils in the table prior to that trip to Craven Cottage.
The 20-time champions retained their two-point lead at the top of the table having now reached the halfway stage of their season, and victory over Liverpool – even in the FA Cup – will go further to affirming the belief that they really are ready to mix it among the title contenders once again.
FA Cup glory would be a welcome bonus to that too, although despite consistent success in getting to the latter stages of the competition in recent times, Man United have only gone on to lift the famous trophy once in the last 16 years.
Man U possible XI: Henderson, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Telles, McTominay, Matic, Rashford, Fernandes, Pogba, Cavani.
Liverpool possible XI: Alisson, Williams, Phillips, Fabinho, Tsimikas, Milner, Thiago, Jones, Salah, Firmino, Minamino.
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