For Liverpool fans, this game is the sum of their most vivid fears

Fortunes on the pitch have changed this season but, as global super-clubs, they resemble each other more and more

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp ahead of the Premier League match at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton. Picture date: Saturday February 4, 2023.

It was October 2021 and Jürgen Klopp was in a knife-twisting mood. “United never look happy when they play us,” he told his Liverpool squad in their final team meeting before their visit to Old Trafford. “They always want to use this game to sort out everything. We are different. We want to squeeze everything out of this amazing situation we have here.” The subtext was clear enough: this was a team liable to shatter on first contact. In for the kill.

Before the game, as Liverpool coach Pep Lijnders recounts in his book Intensity, Klopp and his staff homed in on United’s pressure points with a sadistic relish. Scott McTominay and Fred were to be targeted ruthlessly in midfield. Roberto Firmino was assigned to drag Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelöf out of position. Bruno Fernandes’s space was to be shut down aggressively. The result was a 5-0 victory, the Theatre of Dreams set ablaze, thousands of fans beating a path for the exits at half-time.