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Further pre-match reading: Here’s Dominic Booth on the miserable life of the Manchester United fan.
“It’s so depressing and there’s so many different things going on at the same time,” says United supporter Si Lloyd. “The finances, the stuff with Ineos, Dan Ashworth’s exit, the Rashford thing … I can understand why a lot of people are upset – I am too. The backdrop of this negative stream of stories off the field paints the picture of a club that’s in a state of complete desperation. It must be an absolute dream for people who hate United and watched us win everything in the 90s and noughties.”
Much more here:
Pre-match reading: Here’s Jonathan Wilson on Manchester United’s travails:
The thought had always been that it couldn’t happen now. It’s just not possible in modern football that a super-club could be relegated. Manchester United may have gone down in 1974 but it’s not going to happen in 2025. Even when Ruben Amorim said that United were in a relegation battle after Monday’s 2-0 defeat by Newcastle, he was making the point to shock.
And it’s not going to happen now. United will not be relegated. They probably only need 15 points from the second half of the season to be safe and the financial structure of modern football means there are at least three sides worse than them. Yet it’s significant that Amorim could mention relegation without it sounding entirely absurd, revealing that it feels worth doing the calculation, working out what sort of tally might be necessary for United to survive. What has happened at United since Sir Alex Ferguson left feels like thought experiment made flesh: what would it take for the most successful side in English history to go down?
Much more here:
This game got the go-ahead shortly after midday today after two meetings of Liverpool council’s safety advisory group, and despite a heavy overnight snowdump. “Seems a bit weird that this game has been given the go-ahead, but I guess it suits Liverpool down to the ground as United are in total disarray and this is as close to a home banker as you will ever see in the Premier League,” writes Rick Harris.
It certainly suits Liverpool, both because of the two teams’ recent performances and the impact a second rescheduled game would have on their schedule later this season, though given there is a team in this season’s league that has lost eight of their 10 away games and won none of them, and this fixture’s propensity for surprises, I don’t think the result is a formality (the bookies have an away win at somewhere around 6/1, which (totally useless fact alert) is the same as Paul Mescal being named the next James Bond.
Hello world!
It’s first against 14th in this year’s Premier League, and also first against second in all-time English league titles. The nation’s two greatest clubs meet with one on course to win their 20th league title and the other, well, not likely to add to their own tally of 20 any time soon. Manchester United have lost their last four games in all competitions, their players still seem to have no idea what increasingly-not-that-new head coach Ruben Amorim wants them to be doing, are generally miserable and lacking both clue and hap. But still, they wear the shirt of Manchester United and as they showed at Manchester City last month sometimes that can inspire them to do crazy things.
“In football, one game, anything can happen,” Amorim said this week. “If you talk about the season then almost every time the best win. In the moment they are better than us but we can win any game.”
So this is exciting, despite the disparity in form and quality. And also despite the fact that in four of the last eight seasons this fixture has ended 0-0. The other four have been won by Liverpool; in fact Manchester United have been winning for just 12 of the last 900 minutes (not including stoppage time) they have played at Anfield, and the last player to put them ahead in a game there was Wayne Rooney.
“You can see in my face, you can compare the way I arrived and now,” Amorim said of the stresses of this job. “Of course when you are [losing] there is a lot of pressure. It is hard to cope with all the problems, the bad performances and the losses, it is really hard. It is supposed to be really hard. I think people are tired of excuses at this club. This club needs a shock.”
Well they’ve had a few of those. Will today bring another? Let’s find out together, shall we?
