Gary Neville believes Manchester United have just a two per cent chance at best of defeating Liverpool on Tuesday.
Facing quadruple-chasing Liverpool would already be a daunting enough prospect after they defeated United 5-0 at Old Trafford in November and things have only been made harder by the loss of six key players. Cristiano Ronaldo, Fred, Scott McTominay, Edinson Cavani, Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw are all unavailable.
Even with a fully fit squad getting a positive result at Anfield would be a massive task and United great Neville doesn't see much chance of it happening. "No, I'm not," he said on Sky Sports when he was told he didn't sound confident.
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"I mean, look, the great thing is we come here tonight. Anfield, Manchester United. It's a free hit, because everyone expects them to get beaten well and they could go and do something. But honestly, that's a 1%, 2% chance.
"Usually, these games you say 70-30, 60-40, even if they were a more dominant team just because of the fact that the other one is dangerous sometimes. We used to get beaten by Liverpool regularly when we won leagues and vice versa in the 80s when Liverpool were winning leagues.
"Manchester United would come here and turn them over sometimes. I just don't feel that spirit exists in that Manchester United changing room at this moment in time to deliver a performance at Anfield. It could eat them alive this place."
Liverpool could still win the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup this season after already lifting the Carabao Cup to complete a remarkable quadruple. Neville competed on multiple fronts during his playing days and he explained what the atmosphere will be like in the Liverpool changing room.
"Momentum, spirit, togetherness," he added. "Whoever plays you get behind them, no one is too disappointed when they get left out you know you all have to contribute because you do feel a little bit leggy at times.
"It wouldn't surprise me if they did something like leave Mo Salah out tonight, you've got five strikers there, any three can play and should be good enough to beat Manchester United. They've just gone and done Manchester City at Wembley over the weekend.
"They've taken part in two brilliant games against Manchester City, they're in the Champions League semi-finals. So it's momentum, confidence, spirit, togetherness and making sure that ultimately you keep those things. Performance levels do dip.
"You're not going to be able to play well in every single game against the level of opponents they're playing against, but you have got the right to battle through things. What they have got here is a crowd that's with the manager and a manager that's with the crowd and a manager that's with the players. They're all together here and they have been for a number of years now and Jurgen Klopp has created that."
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