Pundit Alan Shearer has named his Liverpool-Manchester United combined XI and has omitted Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz.
Sunday’s match between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield is huge for the two sides.
Before the international break, Liverpool slumped into a mini-crisis as they suffered three straight losses to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea after being fortunate to avoid dropping points in their winning start to this campaign.
Arne Slot’s side have been far from their best this season as they have lacked balance following their £400m summer overhaul, relying on late goals and moments of quality from individuals to get over the line.
Liverpool’s dip in form has seen them fall from the top of the Premier League, though they are still eight places above Man Utd in the table.
Head coach Ruben Amorim is one of the favourites to be the next Premier League sacked as Man Utd have lost three of their opening seven Premier League games and have been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by League Two side Grimsby Town.
Ahead of Sunday’s match, Shearer has picked a combined XI of Liverpool and Man Utd players in an interview with Betfair (as cited by The Daily Mail).
There is a sense of bitterness with his selections as he’s left out former Newcastle United star Isak, while he has also omitted Wirtz and Bruno Fernandes.
Instead of Fernandes, Luke Shaw is the only Man Utd star included by Shearer, who also favoured Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Conor Bradley and Alisson Becker in the back five.
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Further forward, Shearer selected Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in midfield, while Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo were his forwards.
On the game itself, Shearer has explained why he thinks Man Utd would “snap your hand off for a point”.
“Liverpool v Man United is always big because of the size of both clubs and former players will always tell you that the fixture is huge and one they look out for which means so much to both sets of fans and players,” Shearer told Betfair.
“With Liverpool having lost three on the spin which no-one saw coming and Man United being the way they are, there’s no doubt there is extra spice to this game. It’s a game that both teams have to go and win for different reasons.
“International breaks are always tricky because as a manager and club, you want to sit and work or go on the training ground and work on what’s gone wrong but it’s difficult when you’ve got so many international players away.
“It would’ve been a tricky two weeks for Slot and Amorim.”
Shearer added: “Man United would snap your hand off for a point, there’s no doubt about that.
“It’s easier said than done though because as we said, the noise around this fixture is great and there’ll be a great atmosphere at Anfield. There always is.”