John Barnes reveals one thing Liverpool need to worry about against Man Utd

John Barnes has warned his former side to be wary of Manchester United this weekend despite their differing form this season.

Jurgen Klopp's side are enjoying a brilliant campaign so far as they sit top of the Premier League table after 16 games. In addition, they are also into the Europa League knockout stages and have a quarter-final in the EFL Cup to look forward to as well. In contrast, United are out of Europe, the cup and sit sixth in the league.

Despite their league position, Erik Ten Hag is under huge pressure at Old Trafford and their 3-0 loss against Bournemouth last weekend was a particularly damning afternoon for the Dutch manager. And now they are set to return to Anfield nine months after they were brutally defeated 7-0 in the league and many are predicting another heavy Liverpool victory.

When speaking to bonuscodebets, Barnes discussed the threat of United, warning Liverpool not to be complacent despite the differing form and position of both sides. “The real issue is which Manchester United turns up because on their day they're fantastic. They can play well, but as we've seen when they don't play well, they can be disastrous. So we really don't know which Manchester United will show up which is dangerous for Liverpool. But we know which Liverpool is going to turn up.

“So hopefully we'll be able to start off well and make them play with no confidence because of what they've been going through. Man United are a good team and as I said, on their day, they can turn up and play really well. Hopefully not this Sunday.”

United haven't beaten Liverpool at Anfield since 2016 and the scar tissue from the game last season will surely play a factor. The odds are even more stacked against United because of their sizeable injury list and with Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw both being forced off in the loss against Bayern Munich earlier this week coupled with the suspension for captain Bruno Fernandes United will be far from full strength.

However, despite that, Barnes believes that the magnitude of the fixture doesn't necessarily correlate with form and that it is unclear what type of performance we will see from United. “As I said, you don't know which Man United are going to turn up now because they have great individual players that can win games. I think form goes out the window because inconsistency means sometimes you bring in and sometimes you're not and we're just hoping that this time they're not going to be brilliant.

“We really don't know how they're going to play. You don't play for Man United if you're not a good player, but with the lack of confidence hopefully from our point of view, they will still be lacking confidence and not have that assuredness.”