'I'll always put Sheffield United first,' pledges midfielder as The Blades prepare to face Liverpool

On loan from Everton, the Bosnia and Herzegovina international hopes to start Thursday’s match against Jurgen Klopp’s men after making his Premier League debut for United at Manchester City last weekend.

Despite admitting he had hoped to feature more since leaving Goodison Park, Besic said: “I’m enjoying my time here, (it’s) really good.

“Of course you want to play more. But the team is the most important thing and I will wait for my chance.

“When people in the team are playing well, you have to understand and train well and wait for the chances to come.”

Although the match is personally significant for Besic, given the identity of his parent club, the midfielder added: “For me, it doesn’t matter. We just want to bring some points back.”

Liverpool boast a 13 point lead at the top of the table, and are unbeaten in the competition this term. United suffered their first away defeat for nearly 12 months when they lost at the Etihad Stadium. The match was overshadowed by yet more controversy involving VAR, with Lys Mousset having a goal disallowed for a marginal offside before Sergio Aguero opened the scoring for the reigning champions, after John Fleck had been impeded by referee Chris Kavanagh.

The result saw United slip to eighth, two points behind fifth-place.

“It was disappointing because I felt we could have got a least a point,” Besic said. “But we keep going.”