Manchester United vs Liverpool Preview: Carrick's Audition, Liverpool's Third-Choice Keeper & Bruno's Record Chase
Michael Carrick has banked more Premier League points than anyone since January. He inherited a Manchester United side with no European football this season and the previous manager on borrowed time, and hands them a Sunday afternoon fixture at Old Trafford that can clinch Champions League qualification with a single win. The team has flipped the table, but the man behind it is still listed as 'interim', with talks over the permanent role underway, Carragher backing him publicly, and Andoni Iraola in the frame as the alternative.
The opponents, conveniently, are Liverpool, arriving at Old Trafford with their third choice goalkeeper expected to start, Mohamed Salah ruled out injured in his farewell season, and a top five finish virtually locked. For Arne Slot's side this is a game about pride and final-day positioning, for Carrick it is a job interview.
Three months and twenty nine points
The numbers under Carrick are the kind that get a manager hired: twenty nine Premier League points since the 13th of January, more than any other club in the country across the same span, a 22 game scoring sequence in all competitions with the last blank an Old Trafford defeat to Everton in late November, and two goals or more in six of the last seven home games. United arrived at this fixture having edged Brentford 2-1 on Monday night, with Casemiro and Benjamin Šeško on the scoresheet and Bruno Fernandes laying on another assist.
The shape under all of it is the 4-2-3-1. Carrick reverted to it on day one, having watched Amorim's 3-4-2-1 stretch the dressing room to breaking point, and he has not deviated. Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo anchor the middle, Bruno Fernandes operates as a true number ten, Bryan Mbeumo and a rotating left winger stretch the field, and Šeško increasingly holds the line at centre forward.
The Mainoo contract signed on the 1st of May, running until June 2031, was the trust signal. It said the club's recruitment department was happy to commit a 21 year old academy midfielder to the Carrick midfield long term, even with a permanent head coach search underway. Whichever way the manager call goes, Mainoo at the base of midfield is a structure that stays.
Ten defeats and a title defence that never came
Liverpool come into Sunday as defending champions whose season did not catch fire. Ten Premier League defeats in 34 games, more than double Slot's title-winning side managed across the entirety of last season. A Champions League quarter-final exit to PSG, beaten 4-0 on aggregate in April, after a third-place league phase finish. They sit fourth, eight points clear of sixth place and almost certainly heading to the Champions League next year, but the season has been a steady fade rather than a defence.
Manchester United have lost just one of their last five meetings with Liverpool, and won the most recent at Anfield 2-1 in October.
The 3-1 win over Crystal Palace on the 25th of April was a useful reminder of what the team can still do, with Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak combining centrally and Cody Gakpo running at full backs from the left. It was also the game in which Salah went off injured. The averages over the last ten matches still read as a side capable of controlling games, with around 55 percent possession, 15.6 shots per match and 1.8 goals scored against 1.1 conceded.
Van Dijk and Salah lead the goal charts in that ten game window with three each, Szoboszlai chipping in two from deep. The assist load has spread, with Mac Allister, Gakpo, Szoboszlai and Ekitiké all contributing two apiece. The captain has been the most consistent presence in the side across the calendar year. His back line has not been.
Mamardashvili out, Salah out, and a young United back line
The story for Liverpool starts in goal. Giorgi Mamardashvili is out with a knee problem. Alisson Becker has not played since the Galatasaray defeat on the 18th of March, and on Slot's account has yet to return to full training. That leaves Freddie Woodman, the third choice goalkeeper, to organise the back line at Old Trafford with Liverpool's final league position on the line.
There are not many other clubs in the league who would walk into this fixture with their third keeper and consider it acceptable.
Salah is the second blow, and a more emotional one. The hamstring picked up against Crystal Palace rules him out, with his free transfer departure at the end of the season already announced. His last Old Trafford performance was the 3-0 win in September 2024, a goal scored and two more set up. That now stands as his likely farewell at this ground. Thirteen goals and seven assists across his career meetings with United do not get a final entry.
For United, the central defensive depth is being tested for the first time under Carrick. Lisandro Martínez serves the third match of his red card suspension from the Leeds fixture, with Matthijs de Ligt still working back from a back problem. The projected pair, Harry Maguire and Ayden Heaven, started together for the first time on Monday night against Brentford. Ninety minutes into a partnership, they face Alexander Isak in his first competitive trip to Old Trafford as a Liverpool player. Cunha is expected to start after a hip flexor scare, and Shaw fights a late knock to keep his every-game starting run alive.
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Premier League match Maguire and Heaven have started together as a centre-back pair under Carrick: the Brentford win, four days before Liverpool come to Old Trafford.
Predicted Manchester United XI (4-2-3-1): Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Heaven, Shaw; Casemiro, Mainoo; Mbeumo, Bruno Fernandes, Cunha; Šeško
Predicted Liverpool XI (4-2-3-1): Woodman; Frimpong, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak
Two 4-2-3-1s and the gap between them
Both teams will line up in the same shape. That is unusual at this level on the same weekend, and it makes the matchup cleaner than most. Position for position, the squad is on the table.
What separates them is the platform. Carrick's double pivot of Casemiro and Mainoo has been the most stable feature of the United side for three months: Casemiro for aerial dominance and the recovery runs, Mainoo for the line breaking pass and the long carry. Slot has rotated his pivot through the season, and the projection for Sunday pairs Mac Allister with Gravenberch, the partnership that won the title last year and which Slot has returned to in nine of the last ten league games.
Set pieces are where the tactical edge becomes structural. Bruno Fernandes is one of the most dangerous deliverers in the league, and Liverpool's set-piece defending has been a known issue all year. The cleanest route to a United goal is signposted before kickoff.
If you picked one team from both
Lining the two squads up position for position lets you actually pick a combined eleven. The verdict is heavy in favour of the in form side, but the picks are not all about momentum.
Lammens in goal is the only call available with Liverpool starting their third choice. Frimpong takes right back, edging Dalot on attacking thrust at a position where the call is fine margins. Heaven takes the first centre back slot ahead of Konaté, the bolder pick of the lot, on the strength of the run he has put together under Carrick. Van Dijk is the captain and the obvious second centre back. Shaw at left back, on the back of starting every Premier League game this season, edges out Robertson on availability and consistency.
Casemiro at the base of midfield is non negotiable on the platform he provides for everything in front of him. Szoboszlai gets the more progressive of the two pivot spots ahead of Mainoo, on goal threat across the season. Bruno is the number ten in front of Wirtz on assist threat alone. Mbeumo gets the right wing on the back of nine league goals and a goal at Anfield in October. Cunha edges out Gakpo on the left, more on the United side's collective momentum than any deficiency in the Liverpool winger. Isak is the centre forward, the £125m record signing taking the spot ahead of Šeško.
The combined eleven splits seven United, four Liverpool. The split is the story of the season.
Casemiro vs Gravenberch, and the two around it
Casemiro vs Gravenberch. The base of each midfield. Casemiro is having one of the best seasons of his United career, with nine Premier League goals from the deepest midfield role in the country and an average rating of 7.38 across his last ten league appearances. Gravenberch, last season's title-winning anchor, has gone four months without a goal and has registered one assist in his last ten. Whoever wins the central exchange wins control of midfield, and probably the match.
Mbeumo vs Robertson. Mbeumo scored after one minute the last time these sides met, opening the scoring at Anfield in October's 2-1 United win. Robertson is the senior left back and the experienced operator on the flank. Whether Robertson can contain Mbeumo's directness, particularly in the early phase before Liverpool settle, is a key first 15 minutes battle.
Bruno Fernandes vs Liverpool's pivot. The number ten with 19 assists, chasing the all time Premier League record, against the midfield charged with stopping him. Bruno's first assist of this season came at Anfield in October, the cross for Maguire's winning header in a 2-1 United victory. Liverpool's pivot has to stop him from receiving on the half turn. They have struggled with the same problem against this fixture for years.
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Bruno Fernandes assists this season, one off the all-time Premier League single-season record held by Henry and De Bruyne.
One win clinches the Champions League
Premier League Standings Snapshot
| Team | # | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester United | 3 | 34 | +14 | 61 |
| Liverpool | 4 | 34 | +13 | 58 |
| Aston Villa | 5 | 34 | +5 | 58 |
| Brighton (6th) | 6 | 34 | — | 50 |
Darren England, with all the baggage that brings
Darren England takes charge, which is not the appointment Liverpool wanted. England was the VAR official for Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool in 2023, when Luis Díaz had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside, a decision he later admitted was a mistake.
His record with United is more comfortable: seven previous fixtures, five United wins. His card numbers sit slightly above the league average, around 4.5 cards per game across 26 matches in all competitions this season.
Referee Stats: Darren England
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Matches (25-26) | 26 (all comps) |
| Yellow Cards | 113 |
| Avg Cards/Match | 4.5 |
| Penalties Awarded | 0 |
| Career with Man Utd | 7 fixtures, 5 United wins |
VAR official for the disallowed Luis Díaz goal at Tottenham in 2023, an error he later admitted.
The case for Carrick, written in ninety minutes
The interim manager will walk out at Old Trafford on Sunday with the permanent job in his hand. Win, and Manchester United are in the Champions League. Win, and the case for Iraola, or anyone else, becomes a much harder one to make to the boardroom and the supporters. The structure he has built around Casemiro and Mainoo is the structure that will likely outlast the manager call either way.
Liverpool arrive without their first choice keeper, without their second choice keeper, without Salah, and with a season that already has the ten defeats it was never supposed to have. The 4-2-3-1 mirror does not flatter the away side. Position for position, the in form team plays the side fading out of a title defence. There is one Bruno Fernandes assist still to come this season that will matter more than any other, and the audition for it is on.
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