Liverpool’s Arne Slot says Manchester United are ‘much better’ than league table shows

LONDON – Arne Slot believes that crisis-hit Manchester United are “much, much better” than their shocking position in the English Premier League suggests, as he prepares his Liverpool team for a clash against their rivals on Jan 5.

The Reds were six points clear at the top of the table – before second-placed Arsenal played Brighton & Hove Albion on Jan 4 in a match that kicked off after press time – and are favourites to land a 20th English top-flight crown.

United, by contrast, were down in 14th heading into this weekend after five defeats in their past six league games under new manager Ruben Amorim.

But Slot, also in his first campaign in England, is adamant he will not take his opponents lightly at Anfield, when asked on Jan 3 if he might consider resting players.

“No, of course I’m not going to plan to rest any player because it’s a big game and I said it before the first fixture (a 3-0 win at Old Trafford) and I can say it one more time, that they have much better players in my opinion than maybe the league table shows,” the Dutchman insisted.

“I think it’s going to take a while maybe for Ruben Amorim to bring this out of the players... but they will definitely go up and they are much, much, much better than the league table shows at the moment.”

Slot added that he had sympathy with his rival in the Old Trafford hot seat, who joined United from Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon in November.

“I think every manager sympathises with every other manager, because we all know how much pressure this job brings,” he explained.

“That’s not different for him than for me, or for any other manager that works in the Premier League, or somewhere else around the world.”

Slot was also asked whether he could categorically state that Liverpool would not let Trent Alexander-Arnold leave in the January transfer window, with the defender heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk are all out of contract at the end of the season and can now talk to foreign clubs.

Slot said Alexander-Arnold was “fully committed” to Liverpool and would be playing on Jan 5.

In the other camp, Amorim has said that United are “starving for leaders” during a turbulent period.

The club have triggered an option to extend former captain Harry Maguire’s contract by a year until June 2026.

And United will be able to welcome back skipper Bruno Fernandes at Anfield after he was suspended for the dismal 2-0 defeat by Newcastle United on Dec 30.

“I spoke with him (Maguire) and I told him he has to improve on the pitch, we need him a lot,” Amorim said.

“Also, he has to improve as a leader. We all know the situation that he had here (losing the captaincy and falling down the pecking order) but we need him a lot in this moment, so we are going to trigger, happily, the option for him.

“When you look at our team, we are starving for leaders on the pitch. He is a leader.”

United have lost four consecutive games and are also out of the League Cup. The Red Devils last won at Anfield nine years ago and have suffered 4-0 and 7-0 thrashings in two of their past three visits.

Amorim, though, is hoping that some rare time on the training pitch this week will help his team.

“In football, in one game anything can happen,” he said.

“In the moment, they are better than us but we can win any game. We have to focus not on the context but the performance. We have to improve the simple things.

“Of course, it is a difficult moment because we are losing too many matches and we are going to be facing the best team of this year. But, with training, we prepare more the team and we want to improve the performance.”
AFP, REUTERS