There is something different about this Manchester United v Liverpool clash.
Something significant, something worrying for every United fan.
If I can borrow a phrase from Gary Neville, it feels a tiny bit like The Dog & Duck v… well, the Champions of Europe.
By that I mean simply that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team go into the game KNOWING they are an inferior side. He knows it, his players know it.
As a professional, you just know. You know when an opponent is quality and better than you. I’m not saying that means they’ll inevitably win. But you still know.
And here’s the thing.
When I was at Liverpool, we never felt inferior.
(Image: Getty Images)
United won everything and we won very little, but, when we played them, we always felt we had a team as good as they were, could give as good as we got and beat them.
Now people can make their own assumptions on that – and I know they will. They’ll say if we were so good, why didn’t we win more. They’d have a point. But we still believed it.
The 1996 Cup Final, they adapted their successful, brilliant game plan completely, because they were playing us.
Made it a grim game, because they knew how dangerous we were, after we’d outplayed them at Old Trafford that season.
And they won, so fair play.
I’ve spoken to Gary Neville a few times since those days and he’s said to me that he felt we could be a better team than them when we met.
We had real quality – but they had it too and, crucially, they had an ability to always find a way to win.
We never once felt inferior, though, or at least I didn’t.
(Image: Reuters)
On one occasion we went to Old Trafford in December 2000, they hadn’t lost at home for two years and we beat them, with a Danny Murphy free-kick.
At the end, some of the lads went a bit crazy, celebrated wildly, but I didn’t, just clapped the fans and got off the pitch.
The next day, Gerard Houllier called me into his office.
He had a bit of a go at me, wanted to know why I didn’t join in with the team, didn’t join in with the ‘spirit’ of the occasion. “Because it was embarrassing,” I said.
“We are Liverpool. Beating Manchester United isn’t a huge achievement. That’s what little clubs do… we’re not a little club. We don’t celebrate like we’ve just won the league simply because we beat them.”
He accepted my point eventually. There were reasons we didn’t win the league, but we were a damn good side, who could match any team, and went into every game, even against United, believing that.
(Image: Getty Images)
I don’t think this current United side can have that unshakeable confidence.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying for a second that means they’ll lose. Far from it.
I am saying I think Solskjaer can’t simply expect his side to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool and outplay them. I am saying he’s going to have to produce a clever tactical plan to try and somehow combat Liverpool’s strengths to have a chance.
And that is desperately worrying for them because when was the last time United went into a game with Liverpool knowing they were inferior?
Even in the 80s when Liverpool were the ones winning everything, no Bryan Robson side thought they were inferior.
I’ll bet Sir Alex Ferguson (along with Gary Neville) will be watching with an impeding sense of fear and horror.
(Image: Getty Images)
To be fair, Jurgen Klopp has gone there the last couple of seasons with a better team and not got a win – though not this much better – and that’s what Solskjaer now has to play on.
Yes, he’ll need to do the work, to play on the tactics, probably try to kill the game, but most of all, he’s got to say, ‘We’re Manchester United, we’re playing Liverpool’.
That will be the bones of it.
They have to respond to that, remember who they are and what it means.
We won there several times. In the 80s, United beat Liverpool many times.
Somehow, from somewhere, Solskjaer has to drag that same belief, same spirit from his side this time. It’s their only chance.
As for Liverpool, well, if they do win, as the bookies overwhelmingly suggest they will, then I’d be gutted if I saw them celebrating wildly.
