Liverpool FC and Manchester United. No two clubs have epitomized English football to the rest of the world quite the way these two giants have. In fact, over the course of their histories, there’s very
little breathing room with both clubs having notched 20 top flight trophies a piece. That means roughly one third of all seasons in England’s top flight leagues have ended with either Liverpool FC or Manchester United as champions.
It is an astounding statistic to consider, such is the consistent quality of these two clubs that of all the clubs to have come through the top flight, the pair can only look to each other for anything approaching a comparison. Simply put, no other clubs have been this good for this long.
Which is what makes the match at Anfield in a few hours quite the head scratcher. Because many Liverpool fans – including those of us that are Children of the Hodgepocalypse – won’t really have a point of reference for the dynamic we’re currently in: a Liverpool that’s won multiple Premier League titles turning up against a United squad that has looked lost in the wilderness for the better part of this decade.
This won’t be some romantic waxing on the potential for a lost rivalry; I don’t share, nor do most other fans, the belief that something in the old, familiar feelings of enmity that make up this particular derby. I mean, for all the loathing I can muster up for Everton, there is something different about having an inter-city rivalry. If Everton were to be relegated, I would feel a bit sad because we’d lost a traditional fixture that meant a lot for the residents of Liverpool.
I feel absolutely no such sentiment when thinking about United. Simply put, if you offered me a deal where one outcome is United being relegated to the bottom of the English footballing pyramid, there’s very few things I can imagine as the counterweight in that Faustian deal that I would balk at. I would want United relegated, then relegated again, and all the while be researching if there’s a way to package relegation to include having to play in exile on Mars. I’m like Sam I Am and United are Green Eggs and Ham.
But I’d be lying if the tenor or stridency of that typically blistering ire towards United is the same under these conditions. Circumstances wherein United are sat at eleventh place in the Premier League table and one would not feel that’s anything but a fair reflection of the state of the club.
Liverpool have lived the reverse of this experience – especially at the end of the Hicks and Gillette ownership period, which also coincided with the era wherein United won their last Premier League titles. 13 of United’s top flight titles came under Sir Alex Ferguson in the Premier League era, which means many Liverpool fans truly only know a reality in which United are true giants of the game.
The United coming into town is one that, only a half season after sacking a trophy-winning manager, feels among the odds-on favorites to have the next manger receive the sack. Things are dire in Manchester.
And even if Liverpool weren’t the type of club that looks poised to come good on the fan hope of rooting for a club that challenges for every single honor, year-in and year-out, Liverpool’s fortunes are much improved in the intervening years since United’s last Premier League title. It’s hard to imagine things reversing any time soon.
Which has had me feeling introspective about today’s match. Not so much about wanting a blood-and-thunder approach to the derby; I think that there’s always some measure of that in this particular fixture. But given the polarized realities facing both clubs, I can’t help but wonder if a little bit of the luster has come off England’s most contested rivalry.
Rivalries are born out of many things – sometimes invented out of perceived slights (like the apocryphal stories of Michael Jordan inventing reasons to build resentments against opponents), sometimes built on more practical things like proximity. Liverpool and Manchester are separated by a short drive down the M62. The two cities bear working-class histories. And both necessarily had to meet each other in their quests for greatness over the years. Resentment can flourish being that close to each other.
What’s shifted at the moment, then, is less that physical proximity and more the professional proximity – Liverpool and United are used to having each other held up as the models of excellence in the English game. Where one would often be mentioned right after the other when it comes to discussing clubs capable of challenging for honors, now Liverpool’s main rivals in the chase for silverware are Arsenal and Manchester City. United, barring historic collapses at the top of the table and a wholly unexpected turnaround of their own fortunes, will likely see qualifying for the UEFA Conference League to be a decent return on the season.
It is, in many ways, the type of reality I’ve hoped for: a Manchester United reeling from years of bloated mismanagement finally knowing what it’s like for the rest of the league to have to dels with limited resources. It is also immensely satisfying to know that the club is struggling to figure its way out of personnel problems that are born out of confused planning. It is, in short, likely going to be a long road back before United can even mount a sustained campaign aimed at being fixtures near the top of the table.
Caveats, of course, given that even with their financial troubles, United remain one of the most valued brands in world sports. If a decent owner, one as competent as FSG, for example, were to come in then it’s possible to see the trajectory for United change. It would still take time – it took FSG until 2019 to claim the Champions League and then 2020 to top the Premier League. But the signs were there as early as 2013-2014 that FSG was finding the right combination of decision-makers to turn things around.
INEOS and United’s ownership group aren’t there yet. So, it seems likely that a few more seasons like this are bound to be the reality for United. Can’t say I’m too torn up about that; couldn’t happen to a better club.
