England’s two most successful football clubs Liverpool and Manchester United face each other once again on Monday night in the Premier League.
Andy Cole has made a prediction ahead of Liverpool vs Manchester United
Monday night sees Manchester United head to Anfield in what has long been considered the most famous fixture in English football, contested between the countries two most successful teams. Despite Liverpool having gone without a league title since 1990 and Manchester United having missed out on the Champions League places in two of the last three seasons, the tie has managed to maintain an illustriousness and an edge.
Tomorrow will be the 197th meeting between the two teams, with Liverpool having won 65 times to Manchester United’s 79 in the past, and 52 contests having resulted in draws. It’s the Merseyside outfit who are favourites for tomorrow’s clash though, having won 5 games on the bounce and scoring 16 goals in the process. That’s a run which has seen them rise to 4th in the Premier League, despite some tough early fixtures.
Manchester United have had a mixed season so far. A good start was halted by defeat to their Manchester rivals, which was followed by losses to Feyenoord and Watford. A convincing win at home to champions Leicester gave cause for optimism, but that was soon tempered when struggling Stoke came to Old Trafford and earned themselves a draw. Despite some shaky form, Mourinho’s side are only 3 points behind Liverpool.
Liverpool are flying high in the Premier League
Ahead of Monday nights game, former Manchester United forward and the Premier League’s third highest goal scorer Andy Cole did a Twitter Q&A, answering questions largely related to the upcoming fixture and also his memories of Liverpool-Manchester United derbies.
The 44-year-old claimed his favourite strike against Liverpool was in fact for Blackburn at Anfield, but his favourite win was the 3-2 victory on Merseyside with Manchester United and called Real Madrid trio Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and “the real” Ronaldo the best players he ever played against.
As for Monday’s game, Cole was asked who could be a potential match winner, and he went with the man who overtook him as the second highest scorer in Premier League history, Wayne Rooney. Regarding the man dropped by Jose Mourinho and the cause of endless ‘where is his best position’ debates, Cole said, “It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s @WayneRooney,” going on to state that Marcus Rashford’s pace will also cause Liverpool problems.
The Manchester United and England captain will certainly hope Cole is right. He has scored just one goal this season, coming in an away win at Bournemouth, and managed only 8 league goals last season, his lowest tally since the 2002/03 season.
Having been dropped by Jose Mourinho for Manchester United’s last three games, and dropped by Gareth Southgate for England’s World Cup Qualifier against Slovenia, there are doubts over whether Rooney will start or even feature against Liverpool, so Cole backing him to be the game’s match winner is bolder than it would be in most seasons.
Rooney has a record of 6 goals in 23 games against Liverpool over his career, poorer than his record against Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and the rest of his regular Premier League opponents. Having said that, the 30-year-old did bag against Liverpool last season, and there would be no finer time to silence his critics than on Monday night.
Andy Cole is backing Wayne Rooney to be Manchester United’s match winner against Liverpool
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