European Banker of The Week: Manchester United FC vs. Liverpool FC

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Manchester United's Swedish striker Anthony Elanga (L) and Liverpool's English defender Trent Alexander-Arnold fight for the ball during an exhibition football match. Manan Vatsyayana/AFP

It’s Matchday 3 in the Premier League and our European Banker of the Week presents two of the League’s biggest rivals come into this derby with a chip on their shoulders.

Manchester United is shockingly sitting bottom of the league in 20th place, and Liverpool is way down in 12th position, following 2 tied games in a row.

Let’s get into this preview and check out what our favorite soccer pick is in this game at Premier League odds of -120 with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review).


Manchester United FC vs. Liverpool FC

Monday, August 22, 2022 – 03:00 PM EDT at Old Trafford

Manchester United FC Analysis

Disaster Start for New Manager

The latest man to try to turn Man Utd’s success around has found his team bottom of the Premier League after the opening two rounds following a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion FC, and a 4-0 loss on the road to Brentford FC.

On both games, Manchester were priced up as pre-game favorites by the top-rated sportsbooks.

  • Although Man Utd have a tremendous record of not having sacked a manager mid-season since the 1970s, Ten Hag’s odds have dropped as low as +400 to be the first manager sacked this season in the Premier League.
  • It seems the club is being run into the ground right now. They have scored just once, being one of only 6 teams not to find the back of the net more than once.
  • What’s worse is they have actually scored zero team goals –their one goal did turn out to be a Brighton own goal.
  • Man Utd and West Ham are the only teams in the league yet to score a goal. Allowing six goals is the joint most along with Southampton and Leicester City.
  • Ronaldo is looking to leave and their defense is overrated –or at best laughable– most of the time.

Right now we don’t know what can turn Man Utd's fortunes around.

It does seem like the most difficult task in football, like ex-manager Jose Mourinho suggested when he said getting top 4 with Man Utd was one of his best managerial achievements.


Liverpool FC Analysis

Liverpool FC Have Yet to Kick Into Gear

Worryingly for Liverpool fans, they are already 4 points behind Manchester City in the title race having drawn 3-3 on the opening day with Fulham, and only picking up a point in their previous game on home soil against Crystal Palace.

  • New signing Darwin Nunez got sent off for a headbutt, which proved costly for his team.
  • Without Nunez ahead of this game and Portuguese striker Diego Jota (who scored 15 goals in 35 appearances last season), they are a little weak on attacking power.
  • Mohammed Salah and Columbian striker Luiz Diaz are fit and available to play.

In truth, Man Utd is probably one of the weakest teams Liverpool will face in the next few weeks, with games against Man City, Arsenal, Newcastle, Wolves, Chelsea, and Champions League games, as well as a derby against Everton. All these matches come before the 16th of October.


The Man In Charge

The referee in charge here is Michael Oliver and he is not a card-friendly referee. In fact, he only handed out 9 cards in 6 games as referee during either Man Utd or Liverpool’s matches last season which is not even an average of 2 per game.

As a season total, Oliver handed out just 3.35 cards per game. Although we expect this to be feisty, 6 cards seems a stretch with this referee, plus their previous 10 games have only averaged 3.4 cards per game.


Manchester United FC vs. Liverpool FC: Our Betting Pick

Liverpool would love to pick up three points here but they have to be realistic. They know Man Utd are bottom of the league and not only are these teams rivals, but also a loss for Man Utd would keep them bottom of the league.

Liverpool, on the other hand, wants to win the game to stay in the title race with Manchester City.

We see this being a tightly contested match. Although both teams are hurting right now, we believe that will bring out their desire to try much harder.

Odds Breakdown

Although the over 3.5 goals has hit now for 5 straight head 2 heads matches, we see this one being feisty and no quarter given.

We like the under 3.5 match goals on the betting odds, but for our parlay builder, we are playing it safe and taking Under 4.5 match goals along with Under 5.5 match cards.

We are going for a 1-1 draw here, but wouldn’t be surprised to see a 2-1 or 3-1 Liverpool win as they have the better squad and coach in our opinion.

Score Prediction: Manchester United FC 1 – 1 Liverpool FC

Soccer Pick: Under 4.5 Goals + Under 5.5 Cards (-120) at BetOnline

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Under 4.5 Goals + Under 5.5 Cards (-120)
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*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.