Football pundit Joe Cole has made a score prediction for Liverpool ‘s Premier League clash against Manchester United on Sunday, January 5.
The Reds head into the showdown with their rivals as huge favourites but ex-Chelsea star Cole doesn’t think it will be as one-sided as many believe.
Cole predicts Liverpool, currently top of the table and six points clear of second-placed Arsenal with a game in hand, will win by just a single goal.
That comes despite United’s massive problems this season, and terrible run of form under Ruben Amorim, with the club now 14th in the top-flight.
Ahead of the Liverpool vs United clash at Anfield, Cole told Paddy Power: ‘It’s a derby and it’s a one-off game.
‘But having said that, you can’t look past this Liverpool side. Manchester United will turn up, make a game of it, but Liverpool will win 2-1.
‘Manchester United might threaten on the counter-attack and get a goal, but they’ll get pinned back at Anfield up against the Kop.’
Cole has labelled United a ‘bottom-half’ team, but has played down talk of them being in a genuine Premier League relegation battle.
‘I think that Manchester United will be in the bottom half for the majority of the season, but there are too many teams that are too far off it for United to get really sucked into a relegation battle,’ Cole added.
‘When Ruben Amorim came in and was proclaimed to be the saviour, it was the equivalent of buying a house and not getting the surveying done properly, then walking into the house to find structural damage, and things falling apart.
‘Amorim has walked into it, and he doesn’t realise how much surgery needs to be done on the club in every aspect. Manchester United fans have to be mature and accept what’s going on and build slowly.
‘The new boys (INEOS) can’t even blame the Glazers and the old regime now, because their transfer window at the start of the summer was dreadful – and they’ve already hired and fired Dan Ashworth, someone who was brought in to do some long-term planning, fired after six months.
‘Everything about the club is off at the moment. They won’t get sucked into a relegation battle, but they’re a bottom-half team.’
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