THE DOG & DUCK v THE TABLE TOPPERS
Tomorrow’s big clash was compared to a pub match five years ago. How times have changed. Now it’s...
KING HARALD of Norway may be at Old Trafford tomorrow to see Manchester United collide with Liverpool, but only one of these two great rivals can lay claim to being football royalty at present.
Indeed, it is five years since Gary Neville disparagingly compared this fixture to being like ‘The Dog & Duck versus The Red Lion’.
Such was the fall from grace of English football’s two super powers, the former United defender couldn’t bring himself to see it as anything more than a kickabout between two pub teams. Neville had a point, even if it probably didn’t go down very well at either end of the East Lancs Road.
Louis van Gaal’s side beat their biggest rivals 3- 0 that day in December 2014 to register a sixth straight Premier League win and go third in the table, but a title challenge was still well beyond United. Liverpool, meanwhile, slipped to 10th at the end of a week in which they exited the Champions League group stage with a draw against Basle.
Five years on, and Liverpool’s restoration is almost complete despite spending £200million less than United on rebuilding their squad. While The Dog & Duck continues to be in the doldrums, The Red Lion is roaring again.
Liverpool arrive at Old Trafford as champions of Europe and leaders of the Premier League with a 100 per cent record after eight games as the quest for a first title in 30 years takes shape. One more win would see Klopp’s side equal Manchester City’s record of 18 in a row in the league.
Defeat for United, on the other hand, could see them drop into the relegation zone by the end of the weekend. Yes, really. It would be their worst start to a season since Ron Atkinson was sacked to make way for Alex Ferguson in November 1986.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been assured he will not suffer a similar fate even if United lose heavily. He stressed that he is still the right man, saying: ‘I’ve never felt the job is too big for me. I’m confident in what we’re trying to do. The improvement is there but it’s about results.’
He feels this is the ‘perfect game’ to motivate his players, a comment that seemed to amuse Klopp.
‘I don’t think there are a lot of teams who would love to play us at the moment,’ said the Liverpool boss. ‘It looks like United are the only one. I would say exactly the same if it was the other way around. This is the game that can change the world. That’s how I would prepare it, so why shouldn’t Ole?’
The stats don’t make very pleasant viewing for Solskjaer right now, but one which falls in his favour is that he is actually two points better off than Klopp after 29 Premier League games in charge. Maybe there is a lesson in there for the United hierarchy.
‘Man United is a massive club and nobody is ready to wait for success,’ added Klopp. ‘If you’d have asked after 29 games all the people in this room, I don’t think there was 100 per cent agreement that I was the perfect manager for Liverpool! But you can never compare my situation when I came into their situation now.’
One situation that does bear comparison, however, is the injury crisis that has contributed to United’s problems this season. As Klopp experienced in his early days at Anfield, Solskjaer’s attempts to implement a pressing game has resulted in a spate of muscle injuries as the players’ bodies adapt to the demands.
‘I didn’t feel they had the robustness or the mentality at times,’ said Solskjaer. ‘We’ve been working really hard on conditioning. Of course, we’ve had injuries but maybe that’s part of the process.
‘I remember when Jurgen came in at Liverpool, he also seemed to get a few injuries early on because of the workload and intensity he wanted his team to play with. But you don’t see that any more. He can play with the same 11 every week, and we can get there.’
Solskjaer hopes to have Anthony Martial back after an eight-week absence and maybe a couple more of his injured players. He has not ruled out goalkeeper David de Gea making an unlikely return from the groin strain he sustained playing for Spain on Tuesday, but Klopp wasn’t being drawn into any kidology. ‘I expect their best possible line-up,’ he said. ‘A couple of days ago Ole said, “No chance” for De Gea and Pogba. Today it’s a “maybe” and tomorrow it’s “100 per cent”! Martial will be back.’
As if this wasn’t already a big enough occasion for Solskjaer (above), he has invited the Norwegian monarch to be his guest at Old Trafford. It was the scene of his most famous goal against Liverpool in January 1999, a 90thminute winner in the FA fourth round on route to the Treble.
‘When you sign for United this is the first one you look forward to,’ he said. ‘It’s a chance for the players to get in the history books because if you can score a winner against Liverpool, as I did, that’s always going to be with you.’
It will, but even a United win tomorrow cannot disguise how the gap has grown. MASON GREENWOOD has signed a new contract at United until June 2023 with the option of another year.
IF I think about it now, I can still see him running. Right in my direction, his arms outstretched and screaming in delight. knew Gary Neville was the Manchester United player Liverpool fans loved to hate and in that sickening moment — in the 94th minute of a game at Old Trafford on Sunday, January 22, 2006 — I understood why.
Never before had an opposing player p***** me off so much with a celebration. I had been substituted and was sitting in the dugout, and from that angle it felt like he was coming to rejoice in front of me.
Here was my proper introduction to the biggest rivalry in English football, in what was my first season as a Liverpool player. The two sides had played each other earlier in that campaign, but it was an unusually subdued match at Anfield and ended up 0-0.
The return fixture appeared set to finish with the same score until Rio Ferdinand popped up in injury time and gave Gary the chance to break the land speed record as he flew over to revel in front of Liverpool’s supporters.
But do you know what? I’d never hold it against Gary for what he did. Not at all. John O’Shea ran the length of Anfield the following year when he came up with a late winner. This is the ultimate Premier League match, a clash in which everything matters so much more.
I played in many derbies — Birmingham, north London, South Coast — but nothing compares with the ability of Liverpool versus Manchester United to make legends. The sheer scale of the collision, the scrutiny and intensity that comes with it, makes it like nothing else.
I would never dream of calling myself a Liverpool legend, but I do know what a goal against United did for me personally. Five weeks after that defeat at Old Trafford, my header settled an FA Cup fifth round tie at Anfield. It was scruffy but, to this day, people still want to discuss it with me.
We enjoyed our own celebrations that afternoon. The walls between the dressing rooms at Anfield used to be paper-thin and when we came back in, everything was so much louder. We wanted them to hear how happy we were to have got our own back. What a feeling.
There was always one problem in that era, though. Every time we looked as if we were getting into a position to really challenge them, United would pull away from us and win another title. It’s easy to forget — as you see them in such a difficult position now — how dominant they were.
Once United got to the top of the table, they used to be impossible to catch, but now I feel the roles are reversed. Liverpool are setting the pace going into tomorrow’s game and I genuinely believe this will be the year my old club become champions.
A lot of my friends who support them won’t listen to me. They have been burned too many times down the years with the title but, looking at it from a distance, I just don’t see Jurgen Klopp’s side dropping that many points. They are absolutely relentless.
I can’t see anything other than Liverpool winning tomorrow. It won’t be easy — it doesn’t matter where United are in the standings, they will make this the biggest possible examination — but Liverpool have so much class that I fully expect them to deliver again.
My phone has been ringing all week with people wanting to come around to our house and watch it, which gives you an idea that this is no ordinary game.
It isn’t. It’s the type that makes me wish I was still playing.
Beating your bitter enemy is the greatest feeling in football — and there’s never any need to apologise for the celebrations.