The truth about the Manchester United vs Liverpool rivalry, as told by those who know it best

Just 30 miles separate Old Trafford from Anfield but the bad blood flows freely along the M62, the stretch of motorway that links Liverpool with Manchester.

On Sunday, old enmities will be renewed, battle hymns will be sung and insults will be exchanged when Manchester United face Liverpool in the latest instalment of one of world football’s greatest fixtures.

Ahead of that clash, Tony Barrett spoke to those who know it best to find out what makes the rivalry so special.

Jan Molby, Liverpool player from 1984-96

There was nothing that I could have done in my career that would have prepared me for that fixture. Nothing. I had played in games between Ajax and Feyenoord which are really fierce but Liverpool versus Manchester United is a step up. As a game it is a grade higher and that is reflected in everything from the physicality to the quality. That meant that I went into my first one almost blindfolded. I didn’t know what lay in store, how could I?

I knew about the Merseyside derby and I’d expected that to be the one that stood out, so United took me a bit by surprise. It’s hard to put into words what makes it what it is and the only way I can explain it is the look on people’s faces.

You see players putting tackles in day after day in training and then in games but they have a completely different look on their face when it’s a Liverpool player going in for a tackle on a United player or vice versa. It’s a grimace. It’s a look that says ‘There’s nothing in the world that will stop me from winning the ball against this team.’

What makes it that way? I really don’t know. It’s something I’ve given a lot of thought to but I’ve never come up with an answer. Is it because there was a period when Liverpool were the most successful team in the country and United were the biggest club in the country and that created its own tension? Or does it go back much further and have more historical roots in a period when the two cities were trade rivals? It’s probably a bit of everything, but whatever the reasons are the mix is explosive.

I think the moment I realised just how big the game is, locally, nationally and internationally, was when I scored against them in a Milk Cup tie at Anfield in 1985. When the ball went into the net it was like an explosion in the ground. The whole place erupted. That was revealing enough but the next 24 hours told me much more. The next day, my goal was the front page story on a Danish national newspaper and other papers and television companies sent people over just to find out more about it. On top of that, everywhere I went there was a buzz about the goal that went well beyond anything I’d experienced previously.

During that period Jesper Olsen and John Sivebaek were playing for United. I knew John from the Denmark national team and I was very close to Jesper having been at Ajax with him for a couple of years. Little did that matter when we played United. As a player you could not afford to have friends on the other side, it was that simple.

Everything is hostile. I got carried off injured at Old Trafford in a game that finished 2-2 and there was a bit of a fuss made afterwards because of the way the United fans had been shouting at me and some had actually spat at me while I was on the stretcher. But that is just part of it. It might not be nice but it’s the way it is and you just have to get on with it.

The players have to buy into the passion of the supporters. If you don’t it will show and the game could pass you by. As an ex-Liverpool player I’m sometimes asked if I hate United and I have to admit that for 365 days of the year I’m not thinking that I hate them. But for that 90 minutes that you play against them, you do get caught up in it. You have no choice.

Mickey Thomas, Manchester United player from 1978-81

It is THE biggest game. There is no question about that. It’s the biggest because of the history between the two clubs. It’s the biggest because of the size of the two clubs and the success that they’ve enjoyed. It’s the biggest because of the passion it provokes. It’s the biggest because it’s not a rivalry that’s only just emerged over the last few years. It’s the biggest because so many people around the world take an interest in it.

I was on Sky a couple of years ago ahead of the Manchester derby and they asked me if City v United was now bigger than United v Liverpool. I said no. They didn’t like that because they were trying to build the game up but it’s true. I was lucky enough to score against Liverpool in a game that we won at Old Trafford and it remains one of my favourite goals because of what it meant to the team and to the supporters. Anyone who does that on Sunday will know exactly how I felt. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Everyone talks about the passion, the intensity and the physicality and having played in games against Liverpool I can safely say that they are every bit as fierce as people say. If anything it was even greater in my day because the game in general was more physical but even now you will see players steam into tackles in a way that they wouldn’t normally. That tells you everything about how much it means.

There’s one game in particular that stands out in my own memory. It was an FA Cup semi-final at Maine Road that finished 2-2. Afterwards all of the newspaper reports said how physical the game was and I can safely say that they were not wrong. Both teams had players who enjoyed a battle. Liverpool were a great side but they were also physical. Obviously Graeme Souness was the main man for them as far as that part of the game was concerned but we had Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan so we weren’t afraid to mix it.

I remember Phil Thompson going through the back of Joe and you could actually see Joe was making a note of it so he could get his own back later on. There was a lot of that going on, players getting stuck in to one another and looking to settle scores. This wasn’t reported at the time but there was a melee afterwards in the tunnel that spilled over into the dressing rooms. Who was involved? I’m not going to name names, but that just summed up what it meant to all of us.

After the game Gordon McQueen caught the mood in our camp by giving an interview to the Daily Star in which he said that we weren’t scared of Liverpool. There was so much at stake and obviously Liverpool won’t have liked what Gordon said but we went out on the pitch in the replay at Goodison Park and proved it by winning the game 1-0.

That was a sweet victory and even though Liverpool were a very strong team during the period I was at United, we had a respectable record against them. It’s hard to put your finger on why that was the case because they were winning league titles and European Cups at the time but I think the fact that we understood what games between the clubs meant and recognised the passion that was required to win them ensured we always had a fighting chance. If you have the right work ethic and you’re prepared to battle you can win this game and I’m sure that’s the message that Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho will be giving to their players on Sunday.

Peter Hooton, Liverpool supporter and lead singer of The Farm

I quite like going to Old Trafford. My first trip there wasn’t a very enjoyable experience but I’ve grown to enjoy it over the years. My dad first took me there for my birthday the season United were relegated in 1973/4. I was only a youngster but I distinctly remember being shocked at the animosity towards Liverpool. I knew it wouldn’t be friendly but it was the pure hatred that surprised me.

There were pitch invasions from the Stretford End and mayhem in the Scoreboard End and that set the tone for the match and the future. When I see fans incandescent with rage nowadays I just laugh. United fans seem to be obsessed with singing about us at every match which is flattering as we never sing about them unless we are playing them. I really think their obsession indicates an inferiority complex; it’s certainly their Achilles heel and I know a few clued up United fans who are embarrassed by it.

The first matches Liverpool fans look for when the fixtures are released are the United and Everton games and for my generation they are both equally important. Obviously, the worldwide media view Liverpool v United as the biggest game but I think Liverpool supporters are understandably split on the subject. For me and many of my generation beating Everton is just as enjoyable as beating United but I think people brought up during the Premier League years would think the opposite probably due to United’s resurgence during these years.

Both clubs are very similar if you look at it objectively. I know most fans would swear blind that is not the case but if you look at the facts its undeniable. Both were made successful by visionary Scotsmen who revolutionised and built the foundations for both clubs. Both have been enormously successful and both have suffered tragedies which run through their DNA. People say it’s the Liverpool/Manchester municipal rivalry but I think they are wrong as Liverpool FC has never had a strong rivalry with Manchester City and in recent times Everton fans seemed to have forgotten the fierce rivalry they had with United in the 70/80s.

I think that municipal rivalry is overplayed. It is simply two of footballs heavyweights jockeying for position on that imaginary perch. I think we dealt with our domination with less arrogance than United but I’m sure United fans would totally disagree.

If someone who has no idea of the rivalry asked me to explain it to them, I would point them to the great boxing matches of the 1970s between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The whole world seemed to want to watch them and now the whole world appears to want to watch United v Liverpool matches.

As with those classic boxing encounters the bars are packed out from Sydney to Singapore from Bangkok to Baltimore. The match has everything that is great about sporting occasions – a massive build up, genuine (not Super Sunday hyped) rivalry and fevered passion. Two genuine heavyweights slugging it out for the title of biggest club in the land. However many titles City, Chelsea or Arsenal win they will never have the worldwide appeal of Liverpool and United.

Andy Mitten, Manchester United fan and editor of United We Stand

It’s a game between the two biggest, most successful clubs in English football, two clubs with worldwide appeal from neighbouring cities with more in common than not. Despite their proximity, the residents of one of the cities cannot pronounce the word ‘chicken’.

Twice a year, two main tribes from neighbouring cities which punch well above their respective demographic weights, tribes which are special to millions around the globe, take each other on. The similarities are acute and both cities have continually redefined youth culture, be it in music or fashion, yet there are stark differences between Liverpool and Manchester. United have been champions of England 20 times, Liverpool 18. Nobody else comes close.

It’s United’s biggest game of the season. Liverpool won everything in my formative years and I envied the number of goals scored by Ian Rush. Yet no matter how many trophies Liverpool won, United have been better supported in all but two seasons since the 50s.

My father, a man who has refused to visit to Liverpool throughout his life aside from to play football in rough working class areas like Bootle or Kirkby, indoctrinated me into believing that Scousers were not a force for good. He didn’t use that term, either.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of him grabbing me in celebration when United came from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at Anfield in 1988 (Robson 2, Strachan).

He’s appalled that I’m friends with some Scousers. He just doesn’t get it when I tell him that Liverpool, the city, is much improved and worth visiting, and called me a “weirdo” when I visited Antony Gormley’s statues. He’ll never accept Liverpool, though he’ll concede that it’s a city which produces good footballers.

As a journalist, I find Liverpool one of the best clubs to deal with. The staff are always really friendly. I like football people and you feel that. There are plenty of United fans who’ll say that city is the biggest game and I get their reasons, but you can’t help how you feel and it’s Liverpool for me. I love the edge around the game.

The anticipation really kicks in when it’s the next game. Then it builds and builds. At Anfield, it builds up until that You’ll Never Walk Alone song. The rendition before last season’s Europa League game was the best I’ve ever heard. I’m not supposed to say that, but it was.

John O’Shea scoring a last minute winner in front of the Kop a decade ago remains one of the most intense experiences of my life. Because I was in the Kop. I’d been dared to go in there by a magazine editor and Liverpool fans who I’ve known for years actually helped me in the name of journalism.

They led me to the entrance near my seat and also said: ‘We can’t do anything if it comes on top for you in there, so use your head’. I was surprised when the people around me applauded Edwin van der Sar, pretended to read a fanzine when everyone was singing a song about walking alone and then kept my mouth shut. A few people looked at me like I was an outsider, like I came from Uruguay or somewhere, but I was okay.

When O’Shea scored I ran out of the ground and back to my car which was in a terraced street off Walton Breck Road. Once inside, I punched the air and finally let my emotion out. A gentleman in the house in front saw me and gesticulated that perhaps it wasn’t in my best interests to remain in the area. Either that or he was saying he was going on a man hunt.

The new issue of United We Stand will be on sale outside Old Trafford on Sunday. It features exclusive interviews with Jose Mourinho, Peter Hooton and Karl Evans – the Man Utd fan who helped Liverpool get their act together when building their main stand.

Roy Evans, former Liverpool player, coach and manager

The rivalry is something you are aware of from very young. You pick a team that you support and then you find out the ones that you don’t like. In my case, I was a Liverpool supporter and I stood on the Boys Pen at Anfield so it didn’t take me long to work out that Manchester United, as well as being another great club, were one of our greatest rivals.

I know supporters focus on the rivalry at first team level but it runs a lot deeper than that. The games I played against United for Liverpool reserves were just as intense because all of the players on both teams knew how important it was to win and how devastating it would be to lose. We didn’t need anyone to tell us how much these games matter and why they matter as much as they do.

I was lucky enough to play against United for the first team just before Christmas in 1973 and we won the game 2-0. That was a brilliant experience, obviously because we won but also because I was up against George Best. Everyone knows that he was a great player but he was also a really good lad and at the end of the game he congratulated me, said ‘Well done and thanks for not kicking me.’ I just said to him ‘I couldn’t get near enough to kick you.’ That’s how the rivalry is. You are desperate to win but there is also a great respect.

When I became manager, my role going into these games changed because the most important thing is to try and strike a balance between passion and control. You want the players to be really up for it because if they’re not you’ll come out on the wrong end of things but you also know that you can’t afford to have someone steaming into a challenge after three or four minutes and getting themselves sent off. That will be something that Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho will be focusing on going into this weekend’s game because it’s an element of this fixture that will always be there, there will always be an edge.

Unfortunately from my own point of view, United were the dominant team in the country when I was manager but we still managed to get some good results against them. I particularly enjoyed our 2-0 win in 1995 when Robbie (Fowler) scored twice but I’ve also got fond memories of our 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in the same season because we went behind early but came back strong with two great finishes by Robbie. We had to show a lot of character to get something out of that game so that’s a memory I enjoy.

Obviously I’m not involved as a player or a manager any more but that doesn’t mean the passion is any less. I’ll be watching the game at home this weekend and the nerves will kick in again because it still means so much to me. It will be a difficult game, as usual, because they’ve been going well of late but hopefully we can go there and nick a result. That would be great.

Ron Atkinson, Manchester United manager 1981-86

Someone recently gave me a bit of stick for saying the Manchester derby was nowhere near as fierce or intense as Man United v Liverpool. I used to say those games were like Vietnam. But the thing is, even when Howard Kendall got things going at Goodison, there was never the same animosity between Everton and Man United as between Liverpool and Man United.

That Liverpool side is still the best club side I’ve ever seen. I had arrived at Old Trafford slap in the middle of their long dominance of the English game. The rise of Everton as their strongest challengers meant that from 1976 to 1989 – thirteen long years – the league championship only twice left Merseyside. Some argue that the team that won the Double in 1986 was Liverpool’s strongest but for me the side that Joe Fagan coached to the league title, the League Cup and the European Cup two years before was supreme.

The central defensive partnership of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson was as good as I have ever seen, with Phil Neal and Alan Kennedy at full-back. Graeme Souness dominated the midfield with Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush pushing through. Liverpool then had no real weaknesses you could work on and they could play either way. They could pass the ball beautifully or they could fight with you.

In one-off games we could usually hold our own. In the ten league games Manchester United played Liverpool in my years at Old Trafford, we lost only once. We knocked them out of the FA Cup in 1985 and they beat us in the League Cup final two years before. My pre-match team talk to Ray Wilkins or Arnold Muhren would be the same and, if it was delivered in the dressing room at Anfield, I would emphasise it: ‘I don’t want you coming in at half-time complaining Souness has kicked you because I can tell you now he is going to kick you. But what I can also promise you is that they’ – and here I would point to Bryan Robson and Remi Moses – ‘will kick him back.’ Naturally, Robbo dominated any field he walked upon but Liverpool had a great respect for little Remi. Off the pitch, Remi was as quiet as a mouse, on it he would go toe-to-toe with anybody. If you showed any kind of fear or hesitation, Liverpool would smell it.

Their manager, Bob Paisley, was a hard man to fathom. Every phrase he uttered seemed to contain the word ‘doings’ and there was seldom much he said that struck you as memorable but he won everything, including three European Cups in four years. I find it extraordinary that Manchester United saw Matt Busby, Bobby Charlton and Alex Ferguson knighted but Shankly and Paisley were plain ‘Bill’ and ‘Bob’. They deserved as much recognition.

Liverpool then were an insular club, difficult to get to know, but while there was considerable animosity between the two sets of fans and even the two cities, the two sets of players got on brilliantly. Bryan and Terry McDermott were especially close and I would go up to Robbo and say within McDermott’s earshot that Terry was a bad influence and he should stay clear of any social activities that were being planned.

The Manager by Ron Atkinson is published by deCoubertin Books, priced £20.  

Oliver Kay, chief football writer at The Times

I would be lying if I said it was just like any other game. I would also be lying if I said that it’s often a classic. Some of the games have been really poor. But there is always feeling that there’s something different in the air. It’s the closest thing that English football has to the hatred of Celtic-Rangers, Fenerbahce-Galatasaray etc. Given that the two clubs are 35 miles apart, and that they have rarely been going head to head for league titles etc, it’s a much fiercer rivalry than a lot of people would imagine.

I love the tribalism of it, but I hate the chants about Munich, Heysel, Hillsborough etc as the atmosphere descends into the gutter. Sitting in the press box, you can feel it coming a mile off. For the FA Cup tie in 2006 the press box at Anfield was full, so I was shoved into the overspill area in the Main Stand. That was memorable, but the atmosphere was grim. I wrote about that rather than the football, which was distinctly forgettable.

Funnily enough, all of the most memorable games between the two clubs tend to be from when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s – 2-2s, 3-3s, 4-0s, 3-1s – rather than when covering in the press box. There haven’t been many epics over the 16 years I’ve been working for The Times. The strange thing is that, in this fixture, usually one team or the other performs abysmally. I’ve seen Liverpool steamroller United at Anfield several times and I’ve seen United do the same to Liverpool at Old Trafford. The Liverpool wins were probably memorable (particularly the 4-1 at Old Trafford in 2009) because they tended to be upsets at the time, whereas a lot of the United wins felt more routine.

I’ve been asked if I notice a change in the demeanour of the respective managers in the build up to this fixture and the reality is it depends on the manager. Ferguson yes, though he always had a grudging – genuine but grudging – respect for Liverpool, if not always the managers he was up against. Moyes and Van Gaal less so, but Mourinho effectively entered “Liverpool mode” on Tuesday night when he called for United’s supporters to produce a more partisan atmosphere on Sunday (which made me think he has never been to a United-Liverpool game before).

The #MUFC fans will play a big part against Liverpool, says the manager… pic.twitter.com/kGpoVVN30P

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 13, 2017

For Liverpool managers, calling it on with United is probably an easy win in terms of fan popularity (not that Klopp needs to worry about that). It’s interesting that the two managers accused of being too deferential to the opposition both before and after matches (Moyes at United, Hodgson at Liverpool) are the two that did not last.

Twitter is at its most ridiculous during a United-Liverpool game. Seriously, tweet about one thing (a chance, a save, a foul, an incident missed by the referee or, particularly in this fixture, an unsavoury chant) and you’ll get one set of fans hammering you for mentioning that and not something on the other side. I remember a few seasons ago there was a penalty appeal – one of those where there was clearly contact, but it was minimal and there was that vast grey area over whether it was a foul or not.

For the remainder of the game, all I got was tweets from one side telling me it was a clear penalty (which it wasn’t) and the other telling me it was a blatant dive (which it wasn’t). The one thing both sides agreed on that was that I was clearly biased against their team. Kind of reassuring in a way. For both sets of fans to agree on a penalty claim in this fixture, it would probably have to involve decapitation – and even then perhaps only at 3-0 up/down would the other side let it go.

I think the rivalry is as strong as ever, particularly this season when, whether they win something or not, both clubs have got their houses in order. If you look back through history, when you consider how successful Liverpool and United have been over the past 60 years, it’s amazing how rarely they have actually been slugging out together for trophies. United barely challenged when Liverpool were dominant in the 70s and 80s. Liverpool barely challenged when United were the dominant in the 90s and 2000s.

I would say there have only been two seasons in the Premier League era when Liverpool and United have both been involved in a title race (1997 and 2009). So for years the rivalry has survived through historical antagonism. That doesn’t go away. It has probably calmed down since the low of the Suarez-Evra affair a few years back, but not much. And now that both clubs appear to be getting their mojo back at the same time, there is the prospect of them competing against each other for titles, which means it the rivalry could go up another level.

Dave Lewis, former Head of Force Operations and Football Commander at Merseyside Police

The Liverpool v Man United game has always been different from a policing perspective and on Merseyside it was always a Cat C+ fixture, which is the highest category for policing football. Obviously that means more officers are on duty.  The risk is based on the possibility of disorder between supporters and this operation would look at supporter travel and routes to the ground via train, coach and car to put officers at areas of increased risk. 

Apart from officers at the ground a separate operation will be in place covering the wider environment away from the stadium, such as the city centre and the railway station.  The officers involved in that operation are likely to be under the control of a separate commander who will concentrate on these issues whilst a separate commander looks at the ground itself. 

Key to this is excellent communication so large groups of away supporters are monitored throughout their arrival and departure.  Sitting above this would be a Police Gold commander who will have overall responsibility for implementing the policing strategy and allocation of resources.

The gathering of intelligence and information in respect of those identified as risk individuals will be a key component of the policing plan.  If identified, such groups would be closely monitored throughout the operation with intervention if necessary to prevent a confrontation with opposing groups.  Previous behaviour and areas of increased risk will have been assessed and form part of an operational plan on the day of the game.

In general, there is a lot more dialogue between clubs and police forces for this fixture and there is also a deployment of a larger number of police intelligence officers from the away club.  Also, to ensure that supporters are aware of the operation and what to expect at the stadium a meeting will have already taken place with supporters groups so that key safety and security messages are relayed.

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10