Liverpool welcome Manchester United to Anfield this weekend sweating on the fitness of Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch.
The Premier League champions have been shifted off top spot after two defeats on the bounce to Crystal Palace and Chelsea – coming either side of one other loss away to Galatasaray within the Champions League.
Arsenal are top of the pile as domestic football returns this weekend and could possibly be 4 points clear on the summit by the point Arne Slot’s side kick-off on Sunday.
United haven’t won at Anfield since 2016 but with Liverpool’s form deserting them and injuries to key personnel, they could just fancy their possibilities.
Alisson Becker won’t be involved this weekend as he continues to get well from a hamstring injury he picked up away in Turkey. The Brazil international is just not expected to return to motion until after the ultimate international break of the 12 months in November.
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Konate, replaced within the second-half against Chelsea, joined up with the France squad but was not involved last Friday within the 3-0 win over Azerbaijan. He returned to Merseyside the next day with what the French Football Federation described as a quadriceps issue.
Gravenberch meanwhile managed 45 minutes for Netherlands within the victory over Finland with Ronald Koeman later confirming he had been scuffling with a hamstring issue.
Slot will provide an additional update on the pair when he speaks to the press on Friday morning.
United meanwhile have a comparatively clean bill of health with Lisandro Martinez their only absentee. The Argentina international, who scored on this fixture last season, is nearing the top of his recovery from an ACL injury suffered in February.
Noussair Mazraoui meanwhile missed United’s last two games heading into the international break but could possibly be available again this weekend.
Bruno Fernandes was absent from training on Thursday but reports suggests the skipper was handed an additional day without work following games for Portugal in the course of the international break.
Liverpool XI to face Man Utd – Metro prediction
Slot will likely be hoping Konate and Gravenberch have had enough time to shake off the problems picked up on international duty.
Man Utd XI to face Liverpool – Metro prediction
Casemiro dropped out of the starting XI against Manchester City following the September international break. Having played the complete 90 minutes for Brazil games against South Korea and Japan during the last week, history could repeat itself and hand Manuel Ugarte a starting opportunity on Merseyside.
Liverpool vs Manchester United TV channel and kick-off time
Liverpool vs Man Utd takes place on Sunday 19 October with kick-off scheduled for 4:30pm.
You possibly can watch the match survive Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Principal Event with streaming also available through the Sky Go app and NOW TV for subscribers.
You may as well follow all of the motion with Metro’s LIVE blog.
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