United plan to put the boot in
Reeling Rodgers can expect no respite in Old Trafford cauldron
MIND-BOGGLING statistic of t he week. Yesterday marked 9,000 days s i nce Liverpool were last crowned champions of England.
They have since been dethroned by rivals Manchester United in terms of title victories and — when hostilities are resumed between the two at Old Trafford tomorrow — there will be an edge perhaps unique to the fixture.
It may be almost 25 years since Liverpool last won the league but only months since they blew their big chance to put things right. As Liverpool edged ahead of Manchester City towards the end of l ast season’s Barclays Premier League title race, United supporters found themselves central to their own worst nightmare.
‘ Choosing between City and Liverpool for the title was like being offered two different types of disease,’ reflected Barney Chilton, editor of the Red News fanzine yesterday.
‘It was surreal but you just had to choose one and, ultimately, you knew you just had to root for City. The thought of Liverpool winning the league was just unbearable.
‘When they messed it up and City won it, all the United fans I know just felt a huge sense of relief. How ridiculous is that?’
Chilton, of course, knows it is not ridiculous at all. As former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson used to remind us as his final seasons at the club coincided with City’s rise to prominence, Unit e d versus Liverpool ‘is our biggest game and always will be’.
It was this concept, this part of the average United supporter’s make-up, that saw them standing in Manchester pubs next to City fans rooting for Chelsea as Steven Gerrard’s slip at Anfield began the unravelling of Liverpool’s challenge last April.
Equally, it is this that sees United anticipating tomorrow’s game with unexpected zeal.
Despite their own modest form, United’s recent results have been good enough under Louis van Gaal to take them in to third place in the league. Liverpool, meanwhile, have the look of a side shorn of confidence and direction.
Yesterday Rodgers — just months after almost pulling off one of the most remarkable title wins — found himsel fans wering questions a bout his own suitability for the job.
‘ Listen, command is lonely whenever you are at the top end, the leading edge of the game,’ said the Liverpool manager. ‘Football is very short term. The people criticising me, those same people, maybe six or seven months ago, said I couldn’t do anything wrong.
‘That is the way football works. You have to accept that as a manager and fight even harder.’
Like any great rivalry, fear plays its part. Tomorrow, the travelling contingent from Merseyside may fear a backlash from a team embarrassed last April by the ease of Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Old Trafford.
At t hat t i me, meanwhile, United’s support feared not only that Rodgers’ team would win one title but many more.
‘It was the inevitability of that defeat in April that hurt,’ recalled Chilton. ‘People were coming up to buy the fanzine afterwards and just shrugging their shoulders. They knew we would lose that day.
‘After all those years, it felt almost dirty to be worrying about Liverpool again. Really, you shouldn’t worry so much about another club but this is different. You can’t help it.
‘ We had taken so l ong to overhaul Liverpool’s 18 titles — and then get to 20 — that the thought of them coming back so soon, so unexpectedly, to win one and maybe more was too much.’
I n Liverpool, t he pain of failure — if that’s what it was — was acute l ast season. That is perhaps nothing, however, compared to the trauma of seeing Rodgers’ team perform so lamely this time round.
Tuesday’s failure to beat Basle to a place in the Champions League knockout stages has only i ncreased sc r uti ny of t he Liverpool boss. Currently, the Anfield side are ninth, seven points behind United. Defeat tomorrow would leave Rodgers with a point fewer than Roy Hodgson had at this stage in the 2010-11 season. Hodgson was sacked a month later.
Tomorrow, the identity of the two managers certainly brings extra intrigue to proceedings. Liverpool wanted to install van Gaal as director of football before appointing Rodgers in t he summer of 2012, only for the Northern Irishman to object.
Meanwhile, Rodgers suggested when United and Liverpool met during pre-season in Miami that van Gaal may be ‘surprised’ by the Premier League, words that have since sounded a little foolish.
Yesterday at Carrington, van Gaal was diplomatic about that. ‘Maybe he was right,’ said the United manager. ‘The Premier League is not so easy and I knew that in advance. The last matches of Liverpool’s, they were a little bit unlucky. But you have to survive that as a manager.’
Van Gaal knows about big rivalries, having twice worked at Barcelona, and spoke yesterday like a man who believes he will enjoy tomorrow’s experience.
‘I managed the team in front of 102,000 at Real Madrid and we won 3-0,’ he smiled.
If Liverpool are to get a result tomorrow, then captain Gerrard will need to be at his inspirational best. He will, of course, be reminded by United fans of his part in last season’s title slip-up. There will be no sympathy.
‘Most reds knows that he is their Bryan Robson,’ said Chilton. ‘There is some respect there. But he has kissed the TV cameras when he has scored at Old Trafford. He has done his bit, too.
‘He fell over last season and Liverpool blew the title. He will be reminded of that! That’s football. To us, last season is like the time in Dallas when Bobby Ewing appeared out of the shower when people thought he was dead.
‘It’s like a bad dream, as if it never actually happened.’