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Dalglish: United will park the bus again

Liverpool legend believes Mourinho will set up his side not to lose

Manchester United have scored 21 goals in their opening seven Premier League games, but Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish believes they will take a more defensive approach at Anfield tomorrow.

United are second in the Premier League behind Manchester City on goal difference while Liverpool sit seventh after a mixed start to the season.

Despite leaking 12 goals, Juergen Klopp's Liverpool have shown plenty of attacking flair and Dalglish feels United's defence will exercise caution.

"You would always expect Liverpool v Manchester United to be a tight game," Dalglish told the Liverpool Echo.

"Last year, when United came to Liverpool, Jose Mourinho parked the bus.

"But it wasn't just the one bus, I think it was a couple of double deckers he put there.

"That's not to give him stick in any way, it was very difficult for Liverpool and (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic nearly got a late winner.

"United will come and set up quite defensively, but they have fantastic frontmen in Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial.

"Jose will try to make sure the pressure is on Liverpool, but the pressure is on everyone when it comes to a game like that."

Liverpool will honour the 66-year-old tomorrow when they unveil the Kenny Dalglish Stand at Anfield.

Dalglish scored 172 goals for the club in 515 appearances, and also had two spells in the Anfield dugout as manager.

The Scot may want to brace himself for a hostile reception from the away end as he is honoured before kick-off.

United fans didn't exactly take kindly to Dalglish's unwavering support of then Reds striker Luis Suarez during the whole saga involving the Uruguayan and Patrice Evra back in the 2011/12 season.

The FA concluded that there was enough evidence that Suarez had racially abused Evra during a 1-1 draw between the sides at Anfield to ban Suarez for eight games, but Dalglish seemingly did everything except condemn his player in the immediate and long term aftermath.

He repeatedly voiced his support for Suarez while the investigation was ongoing and, when the ban was announced the then-Liverpool boss joined his players in wearing tacky Suarez T-shirts during the warm-up of a goalless draw against Wigan, before declaring that the forward was deserving of the backing he was given.

That was just the beginning of the feud though, and Dalglish once again did himself no favours with his public reaction to what happened in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford later in the season.

Suarez refused to shake Evra's hand before the game, and that set the tone for an ugly afternoon which saw violence break out between opposing sets of fans.

Dalglish's response was to call a reporter "out of order" for daring to criticise Suarez, and describing the clashes between fans as "banter".

Liverpool will be without forward Sadio Mane, who is out for six weeks with a hamstring injury sustained while on international duty with Senegal.

But Dalglish believes new signing Mohamed Salah can step up in Mane's absence.

"Mo Salah has been the most exciting signing of the summer for Liverpool. He's come in after a fantastic season last year with Roma," said Dalglish.

"He's really quick, he takes it up to people and they start to panic. He can go inside or out, but he obviously prefers it on his left foot.

"At the moment, United are playing very well and Liverpool haven't had the breaks.

"But their luck is bound to change at some time or other and, hopefully, it will be this week." - WIRE SERVICES

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