Manchester United vs Liverpool: Six Questions About English Football’s Biggest Fixture

Manchester United and Liverpool renew their rivalry this weekend, with the two most successful English clubs meeting in the Premier League at Old Trafford.

Including Man Utd’s years as Newton Heath, this will be the 216th meeting between these two clubs in all competitions. A fixture fuelled by the close proximity and industrial rivalry of the two cities, this is considered one of the biggest rivalries in English league football – so much so, that most fans of both clubs would consider this bigger than their respective local derbies against Manchester City and Everton.

It’s arguably the biggest fixture in the English football league calendar, so we look ahead to the game on Sunday by answering six key questions with data-led answers.

Are Manchester United and Liverpool Really the Biggest English Football Clubs?

In short, yes. The Premier League era may not have been kind to Liverpool for league titles, having only won one in 31 years of the competition since it began in 1992-93, but football didn’t begin in 1992.

Manchester United’s 20 top-flight English league titles is a record, with Liverpool’s 2019-20 success their 19th top-flight crown – meaning these two clubs are the most successful in England.

Coming into the era of the Premier League in 1992-93, Liverpool led Manchester United by 18 titles to seven, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s first English title in 1992-93 began a shifting of the landscape. The Red Devils were able to win eight of the first 11 Premier League titles, eventually equalling Liverpool’s record in 2008-09 before overtaking them two seasons later.

Liverpool’s 2019-20 success – their first league title in 30 years – came in the Covid-disrupted campaign, but they did it in style: winning the league with seven games to spare to break the all-time top-flight English league record.

Manchester United finished below Liverpool in the English league pyramid across 23 successive seasons between 1968-69 and 1990-91, a record for either club in the rivalry and a run that ended with United’s second-place finish in 1991-92 – four places above Liverpool in sixth.

The biggest gap ever seen between these two sides came in 1954-55, when United finished fifth in Division One while Liverpool ended in 11th in the second tier.

The record in the other direction is Liverpool’s title-winning 1900-01 campaign, when they finished 27 places above United in the league system – then as Newton Heath, who finished 10th in the Second Division.

As well as winning the most English top-flight league titles, these two clubs have the highest win ratios in the top-tier. United’s 48% edges Liverpool’s 47.6%, but Liverpool have secured the most wins (2,061) – they are the only team to reach 2,000 top-flight victories in history, with Arsenal set to become the second in the coming months.

When it comes to the most successful clubs in English history across all competitions, it’s Liverpool that lead the way with 46 major trophies (excluding super cups) – two ahead of Manchester United.

Have Manchester United Fallen Behind Liverpool in Recent Years?

The stats certainly suggest so.

Based on 38-game rolling points-per-game averages, Liverpool are currently on 2.22 per game, which is well ahead of Manchester United’s 1.58. The last time that United had a superior 38-game PPG average to Liverpool was back at this stage last season, following their Matchday 3 win over Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford.

The vast majority of Manchester United’s time in the Premier League under Ferguson saw them have a superior PPG average than Liverpool across a 38-game period, but when he left the club after match 810, Liverpool began to advance and since then it’s been largely the Reds on top.

Since Ferguson retired, Liverpool have averaged 78.5 points a season across 11 completed Premier League campaigns. This average is over 10 points higher than Man Utd in that period (68.1).

However, across all domestic competitions, United have won the same number of major trophies across those 11 seasons. Their four major domestic honours since Ferguson left the club have come via two FA Cup titles (2016, 2024) and two League Cup trophies (2017, 2023), while Liverpool have a Premier League crown (2020), one FA Cup (2022) and two League Cup trophies (2022, 2024).

Liverpool have had more success on foreign soil in that time, though, winning the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup (all 2019), while United lifted the UEFA Europa League (2017).

Are Manchester United’s Performances Cause for Concern?

Erik ten Hag’s first season as Manchester United manager went relatively well. A third-place finish in the Premier League came with their best points tally since 2017-18. They also had two domestic cup final appearances, beating Newcastle United in the League Cup to secure the Red Devils’ first trophy in six years. They also reached the FA Cup final, losing to rivals Manchester City.

Last season was pretty much a disaster until it was rescued by an unlikely FA Cup final success over City. An eighth-place finish with 60 points on the board in the Premier League was their worst in the top flight since 1989-90, while they suffered 14 defeats – more than ever before in a Premier League season and as many as United lost in their last three league campaigns under Ferguson’s management.

The main issue was their porous defence, which conceded 58 goals – their worst record in a league season since 1978-79 (63). They allowed opponents 667 shots at their goal, which was better than only relegated Sheffield United and 117 more than they attempted themselves.

Across the 38 games in 2023-24, they allowed opponents a non-penalty expected goals total of 64.6, which was 13.2 more than they attempted themselves (51.4). Looking at the viz below, taking into account Manchester United’s six-game rolling xG average both for and against over that time, it isn’t pretty. As a very simple guide, purple shading is good while red shading is bad. There’s a lot of red last season.

When you compare that to Liverpool over the same timeframe, it’s even more alarming.

Arne Slot’s Started Well, but What’s the Best Start by a Premier League Manager?

Wins against Ipswich Town and Brentford have seen Arne Slot become the first manager to win their first two Premier League games in charge of Liverpool.

The last Liverpool boss to win their opening two league games in charge was Graeme Souness in April 1991, but not since William Connell in December 1922 has a Liverpool manager won their first three league games in charge. Slot has a chance to end that 102-year run on Sunday afternoon at Old Trafford.

Even if he does win this weekend, Slot will have some way to go before getting close to the best unbeaten starts by a Premier League manager.

Maurizio Sarri enjoyed a 12-game unbeaten run to life as a Premier League manager in 2018-19, when he began his stint as Chelsea boss with eight wins and four draws. That overtook Frank Clark’s record from 1994, which was an 11-game unbeaten run as Nottingham Forest manager.

Most recently, Ange Postecoglou started very well at Tottenham last season after taking over, winning eight and drawing two of his first 10 games as a Premier League manager, before injuries and suspensions began to pile up and Spurs eventually finished fifth.

With two wins from two, there’s still potential for Slot to go on and break the Premier League record for the longest winning start as a manager in the competition. That record is currently shared by Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola, who won their opening six matches as Chelsea and Manchester City managers respectively.

Before the season began, we were able to analyse the Premier League fixtures using our Opta Power Rankings and reveal that Slot’s Liverpool had the easiest start to the 2024-25 campaign. So far, this seems to be working in the Dutchman’s favour.

Mohamed Salah Record Versus Manchester United Is Great, Isn’t It?

Mohamed Salah’s record against Man Utd is the best in the Premier League era.

The Egyptian forward has scored 11 goals in 13 Premier League appearances against the Red Devils, which is one more than Alan Shearer managed to score in 25 matches against them (10). Salah has also scored more goals at Old Trafford than any other visiting player in Premier League history, with six goals in six games there, which is one more than Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard (5).

Overall, no player in Premier League history has more goal involvements against United than Salah, both overall (15 – 11 goals, 4 assists) and specifically at Old Trafford in the competition (7 – 6 goals, 1 assist).

Looking at all competitions, Salah has even more goals against Man Utd at Old Trafford. He scored in the 4-3 FA Cup defeat there in March, while he hit a brace in Manchester in the January 2021 FA Cup loss. That’s 14 goals in 15 competitive games for Liverpool against Man Utd, with nine in eight games at Old Trafford.

Manchester United vs Liverpool on a Sunday – That Feels Common?

This will be the 35th time that Manchester United and Liverpool have played one another on a Sunday in the Premier League, which is more than any other fixture in the history of the competition ahead of Chelsea vs Liverpool (33) and Arsenal vs Man Utd (31).

In fact, this game has been played across all seven days of the week in the Premier League era, with just 19 of the encounters coming on a Saturday and three of those coming in the traditional 3pm kick-off slot – March 1993, September 1994 and April 2004.

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