Gary Pallister: Liverpool still Man United's noisiest neighbours
The rise of Manchester City in recent seasons has brought the competition United face for silverware much closer to home and added spice to their derby meetings.
But former United defender Pallister has no doubt the Liverpool fixture is still the most heated in the English game, even after a spell when both clubs have been underachieving.
United travel to Anfield for the season’s first meeting of the two north-west giants tonight. Pallister, speaking at the launch of Marathonbet’s Manchester United online live casino, said: “It’s always a great game to look forward to. The Liverpool game is always the one everybody in Manchester looks for when the fixtures come out and it’s no different now.
“Obviously we’ve got some neighbours who are taking a lot of the headlines but the Liverpool game is still the one. They’re the two most successful clubs in the history of the game going head to head and it has that heated rivalry of two cities.
“That’s always going to be there and it’ll take a while for the City game to rival it, if ever.”
Liverpool go into the game as favourites after an impressive start to the season and Pallister admits he does like the look of the Merseysiders under Jurgen Klopp.
The 51-year-old said: “It’s set up for a cracking night. They’re one of the form teams, there’s no doubt about that. Attacking-wise they look full of goals and the manager’s fitted in really well, the crowd have taken them to their hearts.
“It’s a tough ask to go to Anfield at any time but when they’re cock-a-hoop and on a bit of a run, it makes it more difficult.”
Pallister expects Wayne Rooney to be itching to start after being put on the bench for both United and England in recent weeks.
Pallister said: “It’s always tempting to chuck a player like Wayne Rooney into your team. I’m sure he’ll be hurting from the criticism he’s had and being left out of the United and national team.
“He’ll be desperate to prove people wrong and regain his place. I’m sure it’ll be a temptation for Jose (Mourinho) to maybe put him back in the side.
“It’s one of those fixtures where you need a bit of experience sometimes. The Liverpool fans love to have a go at him and he loves to answer them by scoring goals.”
Whether he starts or not, Jose Mourinho assured Rooney he can rely on the support of travelling United fans, after the striker was booed on England duty.
“He was not booed by Man United fans,” Mourinho said. “To be honest, the last match when he went to the warm-up, I was feeling Old Trafford was behind him and immediately supporting him during the warm-up before he came on against Stoke.
“I think at Man United he feels at home, at Man United he feels the respect he deserves. Not at Anfield, obviously, but he knows that here, he is respected.”
Mourinho is also assured of a frosty welcome after the rivalry his old club Chelsea shared with Liverpool during his time in west London, and any ill feeling towards the Portuguese will not have dissipated since he took up his new post across the M62.
He has claimed victories in each of his previous two trips to Liverpool in the league, with a success during Chelsea’s most recent title-winning campaign following the victory at the back end of the previous term, when the Reds were on the cusp of a first Premier League crown.
“For me, to play Liverpool is to play against a big club,” Mourinho said.
“In Madrid I wanted to play against Barcelona, against Atletico, against Valencia. In Inter I wanted to play against Milan, against Juventus, against Roma. In Chelsea, I wanted to play against Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, all the big clubs in the country.
“Now in Man United it’s the same. I love to play against the big opponents and Liverpool is a big opponent.”
The FA will study Mourinho’s remarks about tonight’s referee Anthony Taylor.
The Portuguese was asked about Manchester-based Taylor — he is registered with the Cheshire FA — being given the game after Keith Hackett, former head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited body, criticised the move.
Mourinho said: “I think Mr Taylor is a very good referee but I think somebody with intention is putting such a pressure on him that I feel that it will be difficult for him to have a very good performance.”
For Pallister’s part, he knows the joys of scoring for United at Anfield, having memorably grabbed two in a 3-1 win during the successful 1996-97 title run-in.
He said: “That’s the only time I ever scored two goals in my career. To do it in front of The Kop at Anfield as a United player doesn’t get much better than that.
“It was such an important fixture at the time as well because Liverpool were making a real tilt at the title that year. It was really tight so to score two and win — with a title on the line — was really special.”
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