Smalling: Bring On Liverpool

Chris Smalling believes the Manchester Unitd players' confidence could not be higher ahead of facing historic Premier League rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The Reds secured an important 2-0 win over Hull City in the EFL Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday night thanks to goals from Juan Mata and substitute Marouane Fellaini, meaning the team has now won nine consecutive matches and is also unbeaten in 15 fixtures across all competitions.

United's attention has now turned to Sunday’s huge derby against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Smalling admits his team-mates all feel great about the much-anticipated encounter.

“Before facing Reading on Saturday we knew that we had three games in three different competitions,” he told MUTV. “We knew that if we could keep the winning run going then we couldn't have more confidence going into one of the biggest games of the season. Everyone is really up for it.

“Now we can switch our attention to that game. I think we’ll recover on Wednesday, then we have a good few days to work on the tactics on how to nullify their threats and to really impact our own play to keep this run going. We know how important this game is at the top end of that table.”

Smalling, 27, recently returned from a two-month absence that was enforced by a broken toe, but the EFL Cup victory over Hull was his fourth successive appearance in the last fortnight.

“I’m feeling very good,” he said. “It was frustrating earlier this season but I feel fit now and we have that many games it’s a good time to be back and hopefully I can play my part and keep playing.”