Former Man United star Wes Brown gives his verdict on Ruben Amorim's £236m summer splurge ahead of facing old rivals Liverpool

Wes Brown knows a thing or two about the pressure of playing for Manchester United against Liverpool.

Like in January 2005 when he was sent off at Anfield for a second bookable offence after fouling John Arne Riise in the 65th minute and spent the next half an hour nervously hoping United could hang onto the lead after Wayne Rooney had scored an early goal.

‘I was panicking for 20 minutes in the dressing-room,’ recalls Brown.

There’s a happier memory from March 2008 when Brown opened the scoring in a 3-0 win for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side over Liverpool at Old Trafford, converting Rooney’s cross to score his first goal in three years.

‘I actually won the ball in the beginning and, honestly, as soon as I got past the halfway line, I’m looking at the gaffer thinking “is he shouting at me to stay back yet?”.

‘I just continued going and Wayne crossed one in. I just managed to get in front of Jerzy Dudek and get the back of my head onto it to start off the scoring.

‘It was a great feeling. They had Javier Mascherano sent off and we end up winning 3-0. A great day, and that’s the sort of feeling you want.

‘It was a really big game for me playing Liverpool. Obviously you’ve got the Manchester derby as well, but for me this one always felt a little bit different. It’s the most important league game playing Liverpool. There’s a lot of pressure and, as a player, I felt it was a game we needed to win.’

In total, Brown won eight of his 15 games against United’s old rivals, including three times at Anfield. Coincidentally, he is playing against Liverpool again on Saturday for a United Legends XI in Hong Kong.

As Ruben Amorim’s side go to Merseyside on Sunday looking to build on a 2-0 win over Sunderland a fortnight ago, the former United defender believes the pressure is on the Premier League champions to win after losing their last three in all competitions.

‘Even though Liverpool have dipped a little bit, they will be favourites for the game. I think that might take a little bit of pressure off United,’ adds Brown, speaking with Freebets.com.

‘You have to try and take advantage of teams when they are down, and Liverpool are little bit down at the moment and this is an opportunity where I do feel you can maybe get something out of the game.

‘This is a really good time for United. If they could get a win there, that could change things going forward in a big way.

‘Will there be a little bit of pressure on Liverpool? Of course there will. They have not been up to their standard at the moment and they will be putting everything in. It just means United have to as well.

‘Liverpool will want to make a statement. They are still the champions. They will be making sure they come back strong after the little wobble they’ve had. They will understand this is important for the next month for them going forward, and a big one for their fans as well.’

After winning their 20th title in May, Liverpool spent the most by any Premier League club in a single window in the summer as they paid out £446million – including £125m for Alexander Isak, £116.5m for Florian Wirtz and £79m for Hugo Ekitike.

Brown admits it is too early to say if it was a wise decision for Arne Slot to spend so much signing 10 new players this summer. ‘I think Liverpool are still finding their way with the players they have got in,’ he says.

‘Have they gone with too many players too early? We don’t know that yet. At the same time, they did bring in quality. Whether that quality has come out for Liverpool yet is down to people’s opinions. They’ve had the opportunity to get these players and they took full advantage of it.

‘Yes, it’s not worked 100 per cent yet, but when you’re bringing in quality players to add to the squad, I always think it’s a good thing.’

United, on other the hand, spent £236m on Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, goalkeeper Senne Lammens and Diego Leon, and Brown has been heartened by what he has seen so far.

‘There are lots of positives to the signings, but I still don’t think we’ve seen the best of them yet,’ he says. ‘They have brought a positive to the side, a little bit more flow.

‘I think Mbeumo and Amad (Diallo) on that right side can be a massive threat. First of all, Amad can do exactly the same as Mbeumo in the sense that he can play high, take men on and score goals. I do feel that is a very positive right-hand side.

‘Mbeumo has probably been the star player. He gets on the ball a lot and makes space for himself, and also gets the team up the pitch. Defenders give him the respect he’s due. They drop off quite a lot and don’t dive in because they know what he can do.

‘Sesko seems to get into the right spots and you can see the confidence building a little bit.

Cunha, I don’t think has got to his level yet but you can see it – he looks like he’s got a different character in him which I’m very excited to see more of.’

Lammens made his debut against Sunderland and kept a clean sheet, instantly winning the approval of the United fans who compared him to Peter Schmeichel.

‘I liked what I saw against Sunderland. He came in with good spirit, good confidence and everything he did was fine by me,’ says Brown. ‘It was something that we’ve needed for a while to settle things down.

‘Schmeichel and (Edwin) Van der Sar definitely displayed dominance. I knew that if I made a big mistake, whoever had the ball on the opposition still had to get past big Peter or Edwin. They had the concentration levels and standards that you need your keeper to have.

‘Without getting over-excited about Lammens, he actually brought those qualities in that one game against Sunderland. He looked commanding and while, yes, it’s only one game and he’s going to Anfield now, I think we can expect big things from him.’

Wes Brown was speaking in association with Freebets.com, the home of the best betting sites.