New era as force is with Rafa’s Reds
Spice will still be present when the two sides meet tomorrow, the fans will ensure that. So will Alex Ferguson, whose aim when he walked into Old Trafford was ending the 25-year domination of the Merseyside club.
But with Chelsea 16 points clear and over the Premiership horizon, this match is not about who might be champions. It is more about the direction in which the Reds from the north-west are travelling.
A win for Liverpool would see them leapfrog United into second place in the Premiership with two games in hand. Ferguson would then have to confront the cold truth that the transition the club is undergoing could get a good deal worse before it gets better.
So many reasons say Liverpool, not United, are currently the most vibrant force chasing the monied coat-tails of the men from Stamford Bridge.
The fact Liverpool are European champions with a realistic chance of defending that crown, while United are out of Europe, is the most tangible clue. But there are more.
True, in Edwin van der Sar United have the finest goalkeeper at the club since Peter Schmeichel and the most lethal strike partnership in the Premiership in Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
The return of Gary Neville from injury also lends organisation and concentration to the back four, although a permanent central defensive partner for Rio Ferdinand and a consistent left-back continue to elude Ferguson. As ever, however, it is what lies between back and front which is causing Ferguson consternation.
It is not that Alan Smith and Darren Fletcher and John O’Shea are bad players, just that they are not David Beckham, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.
The midfield quality of the recent past has given way to moderate replacements. No lack of commitment. How could there be, with a player as feisty as Smith in the ranks? But no longer do United keep the football as once they did and no longer use it with imagination.
That lack of authority at United’s core will not be addressed by anyone currently coming through the ranks, even if Giuseppe Rossi looks a striking star of the future.
It will only be solved by signing a big-match player, in the mould of a Michael Ballack or a Frank Lampard. Or a Steven Gerrard.
Oh how Ferguson would love a man of Gerrard’s passing ability, guile and, above all, surging power at the heart of his team.
Gerrard’s decision to stay at Anfield following the heady night in Istanbul last May, is the single most important reason for Liverpool’s continued rejuvenation.
He gave manager Rafael Benitez the axis of quality around which his team could evolve. So even though they started the season poorly and even when critics were ridiculing Benitez for supporting beanpole striker Peter Crouch through a torrid goal drought, Liverpool had a balanced shape on which to build.
The defence, with Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher outstanding, has rarely looked more solid. The midfield, with Gerrard and Xabi Alonso, has real bite and spark. And while no-one could suggest Crouch and Morientes or Cisse were in the same league as Rooney and van Nistelrooy, they have begun to score.
Then, of course, there is Harry Kewell. Lazy, malingering, uninterested are just some of the descriptions hurled at Kewell, who looked the bargain of the decade when he arrived from Leeds before rapidly turned into the man all Scousers loved to hate.
Booed off in Istanbul, when a groin injury forced an early exit, it seemed his Anfield career was irredeemable.
Under a manager such as Graeme Souness he would have been shown the door. It is to Benitez’s credit that he persevered and is now receiving the reward of a Kewell returning to form.
Between them United and Liverpool have won 25 league titles in the last 50 years. Bar a miracle neither can catch Chelsea. But as they rekindle a rivalry heavily weighted in United’s favour for 15 years everything points to the force being with Liverpool.
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