Both sides have elite set-piece weapons, but can Liverpool disrupt the Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro creativity?
Can Liverpool get the better of Manchester United tactically?
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It's been a decade since Manchester United beat Liverpool home and away in the same Premier League season - back in 2015-16. In October, former head coach Ruben Amorim admitted his side were "lucky" when a late Harry Maguire goal gave them a rare 2-1 win at Anfield.
A lot has changed at Old Trafford since then, with Michael Carrick as interim manager and a more tactically flexible approach, whereas Liverpool's season has been inconsistent bar that repeated knack of conceding late goals.
The ECHO teamed up with AI platform Machine Football to dig deeper into the key tactical areas which could decide Sunday's game.
Casemiro: The threat from deep
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(Image: Machine Football)
At first glance, Casemiro operates quietly. His game model tells the story of a midfielder who does the bulk of his work within Manchester United's own half, rarely venturing into attacking territory.
During Monday's 3-2 win over Brentford, the Brazilian made 11 tackles, won 16 duels and made 9 clearances - a complete defensive midfield performance with a data set not seen in 20 seasons of Premier League football.
But Liverpool cannot afford to be lulled into that false image of Casemiro the destroyer.
Within the Premier League, the Brazilian ranks in the top 5% of creators in the division — defined by the volume of high-value passes a player produces.
He doesn't need to press high to influence the game. He shapes it from deep, threading the kind of passes that could dissect Liverpool's first line of pressure before it can even engage.
Liverpool, by contrast, have a Machine Football creativity score of just 34.22 as a team – a figure that reflects their identity as a side built on structure rather than invention.
They move the ball accurately (91.84 for passing accuracy) and they move it quickly, but unpicking a disciplined United midfield block through creative passing may prove difficult.
If this becomes a game of who controls the middle third, United have a quiet weapon that Slot's side will need an answer for.
Dead ball danger…and Liverpool's response
From set-pieces, Casemiro compounds the problem. He ranks in the top 0.01% for headed finishing in the Premier League - again demonstrated with the opener from a corner routine in Monday's win over Brentford.
It's the kind of threat that transforms routine dead balls into genuine scoring opportunities, and one Liverpool's rekindled defensive organisation at set-pieces will need to account for specifically.
They do, however, have an answer. Slot and his coaching team have turned around Liverpool's set-piece fortunes from among the worst in Europe's top leagues in the first half of the season
And captain Virgil van Dijk scores 96.35 for aerial finishing, placing him in the same elite bracket as Casemiro from the opposite end of the pitch.
Whatever United threaten from dead balls, Slot has a player capable of matching it.
Van Dijk is not simply a defensive presence at set-pieces – he is a scoring threat in his own right, as his late winner in the Merseyside derby showed a fortnight ago.
The 'cohesion' measurement captures how effectively a player interacts with teammates through actions that lead to positive outcomes - Casemiro's partnership with Fernandes has the highest rating(Image: Machine Football)
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The dead ball duel can be managed. What is harder to neutralise is what Machine Football identifies as United's most potent connection.
According to Machine Football's modelling, Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes share the joint-highest cohesion score [explained more here] in the Manchester United squad — a reading of 99, the maximum the model can register.
Fernandes himself ranks in the top 0.1% of creators in the Premier League, and at 19 assists he is chasing down the joint record for a season of 20, held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry.
Two players of that profile, operating with that level of mutual understanding, represent a genuine threat to Liverpool’s back line.
For Liverpool, disrupting this duo must be the priority. And the model suggests it will not be straightforward.
Casemiro and Virgil Van Dijk's head-to-head stats - they are both among the absolute elite headed finishers in Europe(Image: Machine Football)
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Liverpool's overall cohesion score this season sits at 55 – a modest figure – and the individual connections in some areas are far worse.
The left side of their structure is the most exposed: Left-back Milos Kerkez registers cohesion scores of just 34 with van Dijk and 37 with Alexis Mac Allister.
(Image: Machine Football)
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(Image: Machine Football)
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If Carrick's side targets that flank in the build-up, drawing Liverpool's shape out of position before switching it to the Fernandes-Casemiro corridor, Slot's press may repeatedly arrive a touch too late.
Liverpool's answer is not to out-create United. They cannot.
Their best hope is suffocation – winning the ball high, keeping Casemiro quiet in possession, and ensuring that 99-rated connection is starved of the space and time it needs to operate.
Whether the Reds can sustain that level of collective pressing intensity for 90 minutes at Old Trafford is the question the model is still asking – and the one Sunday will answer.