Manchester United delight at denying Liverpool indicates grim times ahead at Old Trafford
- You know Manchester United are in a slump when a result against Klopp’s Reds marks a season highlight
- Liverpool host the Red Devils at Anfield on Sunday on a seemingly unstoppable march towards the Premier League title
The Red Devils are firmly in the shadow of their despised rivals from Merseyside. It is an uncomfortable feeling but both sets of supporters know this sensation well. Since Bill Shankly arrived at Anfield in 1959 with the dream of challenging United, north-west England’s giants have rarely been strong at the same time. The only exception is a four-season spell in the mid-1960s when the teams alternated title wins. Other than that, a pattern has emerged where one club are strong when the other is weak.
At the moment United are very weak. There is little sign of them regaining their strength any time soon. The hierarchy at Old Trafford are groping to find a coherent way forward. Should they bite the bullet, sack Solskjaer and appoint Mauricio Pochettino? Or should they stick with the Norwegian and hope things get better? The suspicion is that a draw at Anfield will keep the United manager in place until at least the end of the campaign. A victory that ends Liverpool’s 38-game unbeaten Premier League run could well earn Solskjaer a statue outside the Stretford End.
It is grim to be on the receiving end of domination in this football blood feud. United fared well in individual matches against Liverpool in the 1980s – the Merseyside club won only two league meetings between the pair during the entire decade – but Anfield was home to six title trophies as well as assorted cups. United fans celebrated rapturously whenever they beat the old enemy but Ron Atkinson, the manager for the first half of the decade, summed up the feelings at Old Trafford after the 1983-84 season: “We finished fourth in a two-horse race,” he said.
By then the weight of history was piling on United. The last previous time they had been champions was 1967. As the years ticked by without winning the league, the pain of Liverpool’s ascendancy grew deeper.
Ferguson’s mission statement when he took over from Atkinson in 1986 was to “knock Liverpool off their ******* perch.” It took the Scot seven seasons to break United’s 26-year title drought and by then decline was already underway on Merseyside. Arsenal and Leeds United have a greater claim to ending Anfield’s supremacy.