The cities of Liverpool and Manchester have always harbored much hatred for each other, and this hatred has evolved into a great rivalry between the two cities’ biggest football clubs. Liverpool and Manchester United - England’s two most decorated and supported clubs, globally renowned, with histories of glory. But incredibly, unlike in Spain and her two footballing powerhouses, the two never seem to be in direct competition for glory, they rise out of the ashes of each other’s success.
Liverpool FC embarked on their major period of dominance of English football after the fall of the great Manchester United side of the sixties, rocked by the Munich disaster the Red Devils stumbled and fell to the roaring lion that was a Liverpool FC led by Bill Shankly, on their path to greatness.
“Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor” the great manager once said, and reach the ceiling the Reds did, winning the 2nd division, and in their 2nd season in the top flight, they won the 1st division, and incredible feat we will probably never see again.
This was only the start for Liverpool, who went to win another 12 more league titles on top of the one they had just won. Liverpool also won 4 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, 4 FA Cups and 4 League Cups under the guidance of Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and finally Dalglish.
Meanwhile, Manchester United were having a torrid time, this period best being summed up by the fact the spent the 1974-75 season in the championship. But through the 80’s, the Red Devils began to improve, finishing 2nd on one occasion, winning two FA Cups, but they team so close to the top again fell apart, and were floundering around the relegation zone in November 1986, their manager Atkinson sacked and Alex Ferguson, brought in.
By 1989, Liverpool were the most successful team in English football history by a mile, and arguably would have won more than their 4 European Cups if the English ban from European football wasn’t introduced. Just when you didn’t think anything could stop this machine from steamrolling English football into oblivion with their success, disaster struck…
In an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed. 96 fans died on that fateful day, and Liverpool FC have never been the same again, manager Kenny Dalglish was so haunted by the events, in 1991, he resigned as Kop-boss, ex-star midfielder Graeme Sourness took over as manager, apart from winning the FA Cup in 1992, he achieved little success, and in 1994 he was replaced with Roy Evans, Evans won the League Cup in 1995, but that was the only trophy Liverpool won in his 4 year reign. The 70’s and 80’s were very kind to Liverpool, but the 90’s not nearly as much.
While all of this was happening, Manchester United had surged back to the top under the guidance of Ferguson, winning 5 league titles, A Champions League, 4 FA Cups, and a League Cup, their dominance was summed up by their treble winning season of 1999, winning the League, FA Cup and European Cup.
Liverpool appointed French manager Gerard Houllier in 1999, and success soon followed, a unique treble followed, delivering a League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup in the 2001/02 season as well as a 2nd place finishing. In the following few seasons, Liverpool failed to live up to expectations and the Frenchmen was replaced by the incumbent Rafael Benitez.
Meanwhile Manchester United continued its dominance of The Premier League winning another 6 league titles in the new millennium fighting off the challenges of Arsenal and then Chelsea, and in 2007/08 they won the European Cup/League double, and recently just wrapped the 2008/09 Premier League, equalling Liverpool’s long-standing record of 18 league titles. They have also qualified for this years Champions League final, which will be played in a few weeks, yet they didn’t win this years League without a fight, a resurgent Liverpool FC have had a great season, coming 2nd and completing the double over their Lancashire rivals, including a resounding 4-1 victory at Old Trafford in March, and many believe this side assembled by Rafa Benitez, the Spanish tactical mastermind, may go one better next season and deliver the trophy every Liverpool fan wants more than ever – The Premier League Title.
In Rafa’s 1st season Benitez somehow took a team that couldn’t even finish 4th in their own league to an incredible Champions League victory, including wins over Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea and a dramatic come-from-behind win over AC Milan in the Istanbul final (but lets not go there
).
In his second season Benitez took Liverpool to another miraculous victory, this time in the FA Cup, and a respectable 3rd place finish, only 9 points back from champions Chelsea, Liverpool were improving! The next season Benitez got an inconsistent Liverpool to 4th place and another Champions League final, but this time they lost to AC Milan. Liverpool finished 4th again the next season and Benitez’s methods came under scrutiny, but in the 08/09 season Rafa has shown that the team he has assembled (including stars such as Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina) can finally take the cake.
Liverpool led the league by 5 points at the half-way point of the season, but a terrible January and February saw us surrender our lead to the Red Devils who opened a 10 point gap on us by March, by a our 4-1 destruction of them at Old Trafford coupled with their defeat to Fulham next week left their invincibility dangling by a thread, but in the weeks that followed, they just kept getting the three points, even though they weren’t in the best form, come from behind wins against Villa, Sunderland, Tottenham and Wigan took the league out of Liverpool’s reach, for this year anyway.
Now, wait a minute, your probably thinking, are you saying Manchester United are just going to lay down and die, after a triple of league titles and on the brink of the “double-double” with the players of the quality they have? No, I am suggesting that the Era we are about to enter in may not be Liverpool dominating once more, with Manchester faltering again, no, I’m suggesting a new “Golden Era” of English football, where the two powerhouses of the game in Britian “co-dominate” both England and Europe (See Real Madrid/Barcelona, Milan/Juventus), but this time I forsee it on a much larger scale.
How sweet (and at times sour) will it be to see the greatest two clubs in the world finally go 1 on 1, toe to toe for all the great prizes in club football. We had a preview in the 60’s, and how amazing will it be to see: Liverpool vs. Manchester United – football’s heavyweights.
So, sit back and enjoy.
