Man Utd vs Liverpool LIVE: FA Cup team news, line-ups and more ahead of quarter-final today

Virgil van Dijk would like to retract his words. In the glow of glory, in the Wembley dressing room after he had provided the definition of leading by example, when his extra-time header had earned a makeshift Liverpool side the Carabao Cup, as he prepared to dance with teenaged teammates, he had declared: “They thought I was finished.”

If the sense was that Van Dijk felt he had proved his critics wrong, a few weeks later he averred: “I shouldn’t have said that.” His extended answer was more nuanced. If Liverpool’s 2022-23 represented alarming regression, Van Dijk’s season was mixed; not disastrous but not reaching his own high levels regularly enough. Coupled with the age of a defender who turned 32 in the summer and the cruciate ligament injury that meant he missed virtually all of the 2021-22 season, it added to a theory he was in understandable decline.

Yet now Van Dijk is resurgent, a status as a towering figure apparent when he earned Liverpool their first trophy under his captaincy. But his influence stretches beyond that. He has assumed his old status as the best centre-back in the Premier League. He is a potential Player of the Year.

The Egyptian shone on his return to the Liverpool starting line-up for the first time since New Year’s Day on Thursday against Sparta Prague and scored one goal and made three others in a 6-1 rout.

And United have been his favourite opponent over the years with 12 goals against them – more than he has scored against any other club – including eight in his last five matches. The forward scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win at Old Trafford and two goals in last season’s 7-0 thrashing at Anfield.

When Mohamed Salah joined Liverpool, the 20-goal barrier felt just that. In five of the seven previous seasons, Liverpool’s leading marksman finished with a tally in the teens. In 2016-17, the season they were scouting him at Roma, Philippe Coutinho led the way with 14.

In 2023-24, amid a rout of Sparta Prague, Salah made it 20 goals. That might not seem noteworthy, given he always does, given that he has raised the bar to such an extent that 30 can feel the new 20 for him. Salah has got there four times; he may yet make it 30 for a fifth campaign. Jurgen Klopp greeted news of the Egyptian’s 20th with a metaphorical shrug. “The stat is not really surprising, because he is an outstanding player,” he said.

Yet 20 is still a historic first. No one else had reached the milestone in seven successive seasons for Liverpool. Not Ian Rush or Kenny Dalglish, Robbie Fowler or Michael Owen, Kevin Keegan or Roger Hunt, not any of the succession of superb forwards who have graced Anfield. Instead, Salah has become Liverpool’s man for all seasons.

“In seven years together with him, the one problem we never had was consistency,” said Klopp. Salah, who never got 20 goals in a campaign before signing for Liverpool, has never failed to do so since then. His astonishing debut campaign on Merseyside yielded 44 but he has proved no one-season wonder.

“Mo is just delivering and delivering and delivering, his desire doesn’t stop, his quality is there and his desire to score doesn’t stop,” added Klopp. “He has improved in so many aspects since he started here. That’s how it is, he will not stop.”

Maguire has missed the club’s last three games and his return comes as United confirmed centre-back Jonny Evans had been “nursing a minor issue” in recent matches.

The FA Cup is United’s last chance of winning silverware this season, while Ten Hag’s side have the opportunity to deny Liverpool and Klopp their hopes of winning the quadruple in a huge game at Old Trafford.

For Erik ten Hag, Liverpool has represented the first high and perhaps the lowest low. His maiden win as Manchester United manager, nine days after the 4-0 shellacking at Brentford, came against Liverpool. So did his heaviest defeat, and United’s record loss in a fixture that dates back to the 19th century: 7-0 at Anfield last March.

Should Ten Hag get his marching orders this summer, the temptation will be to say that it started to unravel against Liverpool: United went there with two defeats in 32 matches and have now been beaten 22 times in little over a year. Should he go, though, there would be a historic first: never have United and Liverpool appointed a new manager in the same year. And probably, given the stature of the clubs, they would be considering some of the same candidates, competing to attract them.

Not if Ten Hag has his way. There is a resident argument at Old Trafford for affording managers time, and Sir Alex Ferguson is proof the road to success can be bumpy: his United finished second only to Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool in 1988 and dipped to 11th the following season. Ten Hag’s drop from third to sixth may seem small in comparison, but comes in the context of a time when the superclubs’ budget is many times that of the rest of the division.

Good morning and welcome to the Independent’s coverage of Manchester United against Liverpool in the final FA Cup quarter-final tie.

The Red Devils will hope to salvage their season in pursuit of more silverware under Erik ten Hag.

While Jurgen Klopp’s Reds can still win a memorable quadruple with the potential to add any of the FA Cup, Premier League and Europa League to their Carabao Cup triumph.

Follow all the latest updates and build-up, plus team news before the Old Trafford match.