Sheffield United vs Liverpool

Premier League title hopefuls Liverpool take a routinely-looking trip to Bramall Lane to face basement boys Sheffield United.

A 5-0 battering at the hands of fellow promoted rivals Burnley at the weekend proved the end of the road for underperforming manager Paul Heckingbottom. After the ‘Blades’ plummeted to the bottom of the standings on the back of a three-game winless league run (D1, L2), the club’s powerbrokers relieved their coach of his duties, bringing back Chris Wilder to fill the vacancy. No stranger to this setting, having spent five years at the helm of United between 2016 and 2021, Wilder returns home to improve the Yorkshire outfit’s disastrous losing ratio of 79% after the first 14 rounds (W1, D2, L11). His first assignment is to plug United’s defensive holes, with the hosts conceding a league-high 39 goals at an alarming rate of 2.78 per game.

Wilder couldn’t have asked for a more complicated place to start, with high-flying Liverpool touching down at Bramall Lane fresh off an insane late comeback to beat Fulham 4-3 at home and maintain a two-point deficit on Premier League leaders Arsenal. That result preserved their 100% win record at Anfield in the league this term, but the ‘Reds’ have been unable to transfer that form to their travels. Jurgen Klopp’s men have emerged victorious only twice in their six away league matches (D4, L1), with their last three road trips yielding scoring draws, including a 1-1 stalemate against perennial champions Manchester City. With Liverpool yet to keep a clean sheet across ten competitive away games in 2023/24, the visitors’ best chance of extending a five-game winning H2H run is to pack a punch again.