Out-of-form Manchester United will be looking to end Liverpool’s 100% start to the season when the duo meet in the Premier League after the international break.
Paul Merson has claimed that the international break will be a ‘big leveller’ for Manchester United when they take on Liverpool because their rivals will have players returning late from international duty.
Merson thinks that will give Jurgen Klopp less time to work on a game plan, but it needs to be remembered that both Liverpool and United will be losing a high volume of players over the international period, so in effect, it is a rather bizarre comment from the Sky pundit.
Current Premier League leaders Liverpool will travel to Old Trafford on October 20, with Jurgen Klopp’s side sitting top and their rivals in 12th place.
Speaking to Sky Sports News (05/10/2019 at 5:30 pm), despite United’s current problems, Merson thinks they will turn up against Liverpool.
“That’s their [Man Utd’s] cup final,” Merson told Sky Sports News. “Don’t worry about that. They’ll be turning up in a couple of weeks time.
“The big leveller is that you have got an international break. Players are going to be coming back from all over the world, they [Liverpool] won’t have a lot of time to work on the team. On paper, if you’re a United fan, you are thinking, ‘oh, no, here we go’.
“But we have seen this a million times. I have seen Arsenal turn up there [Old Trafford] on 50 game runs, I know it isn’t that team now, this is a cup final. And for the Man United players, this will be there get out of jail. If they can get a result here.”
Jurgen Klopp’s side go into their upcoming clash having beaten Leicester City in stoppage-time after Sadio Mane was awarded a penalty, which was later converted by James Milner.
As for United, they suffered an away defeat to relegation-threatened Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon, as things are going from bad to worse for the Manchester club.
It has been a pretty long while since the gap between both clubs has been as big as it is after only eight Premier League encounters.
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