Meanwhile Roy Keane, who is sitting next to Daniel Sturridge in the Sky studio today is already growling:

I don’t feel it today. I’m even surprised at myself. I look at the energy that comes from them. Today I’m probably more worried about this United States than ever before. It’s one of the worst United teams I’ve seen in a long time.

And now Ruben Amorims also spoken. Incredible scenes.

Of course, anything is possible when playing football. We have to perform better than last week, that’s our goal and we have to focus on the little things that will help us stay in the game. Let’s improve the basic things. We have to be a team and for that we have to recover very quickly to move forward very quickly. The players were nervous and scared (last week) but we have to be brave. Remember this is the fun part of our week.

Arne Slot has a chat before the game with Sky:

I think every game we play is a serious test every time. Every team has good players and United have a lot more than some of the teams we play against. When you play in the Premier League it’s always going to be a tough and challenging game.

He was asked if there was any chance of complacency given the pre-match talk about getting a cricket score:

It could lead to United players saying: ‘We’re a lot better than people say.’ Which they are. This season against City, last season in the FA Cup final, when you least expect it, they turn up.

Some reactions to the teams: “It was bad being a Utd fan. No need to go into details. Nevertheless, this starting eleven gives hope,” writes Niall O’Keeffe. Meanwhile: “Larry David might suggest that it would be a ‘nice, pretty, pretty, pretty good’ idea at this stage for United to go out and send off enough of their own players to take what is effectively a 3-0 defeat.” he says to Steven Hughes.

Additional pre-game reading: Here’s Barney Ronay on the difference between the two managers:

Liverpool and Arne Slot are a perfect point of contrast. The system obsessive versus the pragmatist: This is a central dichotomy in modern coaching. On the one hand, the stalwart philosophy dealer, the evangelist, who plays exactly as we do.

This has become the norm and a necessary form of self-promotion for leaders. Vincent Kompany beat Burnley with wonderfully fractious style and was rewarded with one of the best jobs in world football. Ange Postecoglou continues to hide his team’s failures behind a kind of ideological defiance, as if there was simply too much at stake here, too much art, too much love, to waste time learning, defending, adapting or to find all other gears.

Amorim is a version of this. Here is a manager who arrived at United weeks in advance and announced the exact tactical formation of his teams, as if he had revealed an incontrovertible truth with three defenders and vigorous pressing in midfield.

Much more here:

The teams!

Further reading before the game: Here Dominic Booth talks about the miserable life of the Manchester United fan.

“It’s so depressing and there are so many different things happening at the same time,” said United fan Si Lloyd. “The finances, the Ineos thing, Dan Ashworth leaving, the Rashford thing… I can understand why a lot of people are upset – me too. Against the backdrop of this negative stream of stories off the pitch, a picture emerges of a club in a state of utter despair. It must be an absolute dream come true for people who hate United and watch us win everything in the 90s and 2000s.”

Much more here:

Reading before the game: Here’s Jonathan Wilson on Manchester United’s struggles:

The thought had always been that it couldn’t happen now. In modern football it is simply not possible for a super club to be relegated. Even though Manchester United went under in 1974, that won’t be the case in 2025. Even when Ruben Amorim said United were in a relegation battle after Monday’s 2-0 defeat to Newcastle, he expressed it to shock.

And that won’t happen now. United will not be relegated. They probably only need 15 points from the second half of the season to be safe, and the financial structure of modern football means there are at least three teams worse than them. Still, it’s telling that Amorim was able to mention relegation without sounding completely absurd, and showed that it’s worth doing the math and figuring out what balance might be necessary for United’s survival. What has happened at United since Sir Alex Ferguson left feels like a thought experiment turned reality: what would it take for the most successful team in English history to go under?

Much more here:

This game has been greenlit Just after midday today after two meetings of Liverpool City Council’s Safety Advisory Group and despite a heavy load of snow overnight. “Seems a bit strange that this game has been given the green light but I think it suits Liverpool to a tee as United are in complete disarray and this is as close to being a home banker as you’ll ever get in the Premier League “has seen,” writes Rick Harris.

It certainly suits Liverpool, both because of the two teams’ recent performances and the impact that a second postponed game later this season would have on their schedule, despite having one team winning eight of their ten this season Lost away games and haven’t won any of them, and as this game is prone to surprises I don’t think the result is a formality (the bookmakers have an away win at around 6/1, which (totally useless fact warning) is the same thing is like Paul Mescal being named the next James Bond.

Hello World!