Indeed, Manchester United take to the dreaded ground on Sunday, October 19 to take on arch-rivals, and reigning Premier League champions, Liverpool.
Both sides have endured tumultuous form heading into the fixture, with Arne Slot’s men on the back of three consecutive defeats at the hands of Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea.
As for United, they entered the break with high morale following a much-needed victory over Sunderland at Old Trafford. Goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko, who has now scored in back-to-back matches, were enough for United to overturn the newly-promoted Black Cats.
The match also marked Senne Lammens’ maiden outing for the club after he was made to wait over four weeks to make his debut. Amorim opted for Altay Bayindir in the Manchester derby, home clash with Chelsea and defeat to Brentford, despite the Turkish international’s form leaving much to be desired since the season began.
There are now questions as to whether Bayindir will be restored to the XI, or whether Amorim will take a chance. Selecting your first eleven can be a bit like selecting numbers on a roulette table – you may have a well thought through strategy, but it always comes down to a bit of a lottery.
Doing your homework on the players past performance is certainly valuable – just like you can research the best online casinos in NZ at Jackpot Casino to find the best bonuses before you pick which game you want to play. I suspect Amorim will roll the dice and run with the slightly more inexperienced Lammens.
Fans are likely to rally for the latter option based on how the Belgian fared throughout his appearance; not only did Lammens secure United’s first clean sheet of the season at the first time of asking, he made three saves in total, including two inside the box, completed two high claims and one clearance.
Unsurprisingly, he picked up the Man of the Match award, being rightfully recognised for such a commanding display.
In regard to how the rest of the team may shape up, Sesko and Mount should retain their places to, ideally, keep up their goalscoring form, whilst Bryan Mbeumo may drop out for fellow summer signing Matheus Cunha.
The only changes in the backline from the Sunderland game (Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt and Luke Shaw) will presumably only be Lisandro Martinez if he returns from injury in time to make the squad. That being said, his unrelenting fitness woes might encourage Amorim to take more precautions with his return to the fold.
Liverpool, meanwhile, will be crossing their fingers that the likes of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz can finally kick on, with the former yet to open his account in the league, and the £116 million German without any goal contributions in his first seven top-flight appearances.
