Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana thinks that Sunday's opposition Manchester United will be fearing facing them, more than the Reds will be worried about facing Louis van Gaal's side.

The meeting has the potential to shape the top-four race, with United currently sat two points ahead of Liverpool in 4th place. With just nine Premier League games left this season, United could open up a potentially decisive five-point gap with a win, but Lallana insists his side are not scared of their arch-rivals.

"We are not worried about the opposition, I think United will be worried about us," said Lallana. "The rest of the league will be looking at us and the run of form we are in.

"We haven’t lost in the league since the defeat at Old Trafford, we have taken 33 points from 39 and kept six successive cleans sheets away from home. We have turned our season around."

Liverpool have not lost since the last time they met with United, on the 14th of December - the first time they trialled Brendan Rodgers' 3-4-2-1 formation. 

The Northern Irishman's new system has since seen Liverpool win 10 and draw three of their Premier League games since mid-December.

"There were glimpses of what we might be able to achieve in that game," added Lallana. "There were chances we could have taken, but we lost 3-0 so it was disappointing for us.

"That result at United summed up where we were as a team. We had a difficult start to the season, it’s no secret we were struggling for form and confidence, but credit to the manager and everyone else at the club for sticking together and coming out the other side a lot stronger.

"When we went to United we hadn’t been playing well, and even though defensively we were open we still managed to create enough chances to get something. We came away thinking we could have got a draw or even won, but at that time it just wasn’t happening for us.

"The result was a reflection of our confidence back then, we were low as a team and defeat in that manner left a sour taste."

Rodgers' Liverpool have gone through the motions this season, and Lallana - who cost £25 million to bring to Merseyside last summer - admits he felt the weight of the added pressures and expectations.

"Confidence is sky high now but it hasn’t always been like that," he said. "This is my first season at Liverpool and I can’t help but remember the difficult times, the difficult conversations we had at the start.

"When we lost at Crystal Palace (in November), for example, the media was full of stories that the new signings hadn’t worked, the manager’s job was under threat, and naturally because I was one of those new signings I was feeling extra pressure.

"It would have been great to come in and be on fire from the start, for all the new signings to start contributing right away, but that is not how it works.

"We had a big squad, there were a lot of games to play because of the Champions League, and we rarely kept the same team because we weren’t playing well. Now we are playing well, it shows the value of sticking together and working at something.

"You can over think a lot of things when you are not playing well, worry too much about the decisions you are making, whereas now we are free. Going out on to the pitch and being mentally free is a massive thing. We’ve got that in abundance at the minute. There is no one we feel we can’t beat."

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About the author
Charlie Malam
Digital Sports Writer at the Daily Express. First-class Staffordshire University Sports Journalism graduate. Formerly VAVEL UK's Liverpool FC editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Contributor since June 2014.