Match Focus: Will Liverpool Pile More Pressure on Van Gaal's United?

There's little doubt as to the showpiece encounter in the Premier League this weekend, with Sunday's early kick-off seeing Liverpool host rivals Manchester United. It's been quite the start to the calendar year at Anfield, with the Reds welcoming the visit of Arsenal on Wednesday in what proved to be one of the games of the season so far.

A matter of weeks ago one certainly wouldn't have predicted that this match would be able to live up to Liverpool's midweek thriller, but United have opened up in attack and at the back in recent league matches. The game against Newcastle on Tuesday was the most obvious example, with both sides heading into the game off the back of a rare 3-3 scoreline.

The nature of said stalemates differed greatly though, as Liverpool scored a last minute leveller to pick up a strong result against top of the table Arsenal, while United succumbed to a late equaliser against relegation threatened Newcastle. The Reds will likely be in higher spirits then, with the pressure back on Louis van Gaal in the away dugout ahead of what is a huge game for both sets of fans.

If recent meetings are anything to go by then the visitors have the edge, coming out on top in each of the last four meetings between the sides. However, since then Jurgen Klopp has taken the reins at Anfield and has masterminded impressive performances against some of the league's biggest names to date. Indeed, the German has taken charge of matches against the likes of City, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal thus far and is yet to be beaten in said encounters. For the home support, despite United's troubling form of late, there is no bigger scalp than that of the Red Devils.

The hosts will likely name a similar side from midweek, meaning Roberto Firmino will continue to lead the line to keep Christian Benteke on the bench. The Brazilian certainly deserves his place following a WhoScored.com man of the match showing against the Gunners, scoring two first half goals for a rating of 9.36.

While it's been a relatively underwhelming start from the forward after a big money move from Hoffenheim he has certainly proven to be up for the fight on the big occasion. Indeed, Firmino has been awarded the WhoScored man of the match award three times this season, each of which have come against the current top three. His tendency to turn it on when the spotlight is shining is evidenced by the fact that he has either scored or assisted goals against Chelsea, City, Arsenal and high-flying Leicester thus far.

As a result Firmino could make for a shrewd buy in Buabook's match market, and if shares are available south of £0.40 it may be worth a risk.

For the visitors, the return to form of Wayne Rooney has been long awaited to say the least. The United and England captain has scored 4 goals in 3 appearances in 2016 having notched the same number in 19 competitive appearances for the club before the turn of the year in the current campaign.

As a boyhood Everton fan and Toffees academy graduate there will again be no love lost between the forward and the home fans come Sunday, though Rooney has struggled to rise to the occasion against the Reds in general. The United skipper has netted just 5 goals in 24 professional appearances against Liverpool, only one of which has come in 12 outings at Anfield. Indeed, his last strike on Merseyside against this weekend's opponents was the only goal of the game over ten years ago, in the 2004/05 campaign.

Given his recent form it's understandably tempting to back Rooney to have a real impact this weekend but tradition suggests that will not be the case. With the hosts likely to be favourites to pile even more pressure on Van Gaal, I would sell shares in the match market for England's all-time top scorer in excess of £0.30.

Either way, with neither defence instilling great confidence in their fans in midweek and beyond we should be in for an entertaining affair when these two heavyweights battle it out on Sunday.

Click here to read our match preview with predicted line-ups

You can trade the values of any of the players on display as Liverpool host United with Buabook, the first player trading exchange based on detailed statistics