According to reports from The Independent yesterday evening, Steve McManaman has accused Liverpool and Manchester United of losing their local identities in recent years.
The great northwest rivals face each other in the Premier League’s 5.30 kick-off on Saturday, in a match that draws the Premier League’s biggest global audience and separates two eras of one-club dominance in English football; the Merseysiders ruling supreme in the 1970s and 1980s and United claiming 13 Premier League titles in the space of two decades under Sir Alex Ferguson.
But McManaman, who rose through the Anfield academy ranks to make 364 senior appearances before leaving for Real Madrid in 1999, fears that his former club and the Red Devils have stopped representing their local communities in recent years.
The Mersey-born midfielder told The Independent; “It’s something these two sides are missing now. Even when compared to two or three years ago, both clubs have lost a lot of identity. When you look at the teamsheets, local players aren’t there.
“Thankfully, Wayne [Rooney]’s still there. He knows the history of this fixture, but how many others have a mad, passionate desperation to play in this game? We haven’t got the Nevilles, the Carraghers anymore, that type of player who fights and knows what this occasion means. It’s nostalgic, but I find that quite sad.”
Rooney will likely be the only representative of either city involved in Saturday’s derby. Manchester-born Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck have both been sold by United during Louis van Gaal’s management tenure, whilst the injury-hit Jon Flanagan is the only Liverpudlian in Brendan Rodgers’ first team squad boasting more than one Premier League appearance, following Steven Gerrard’s summer departure to the MLS.
Both sides enter the fixture with almost identical records in the Premier League after two wins, one draw and one defeat apiece, separated in the table by goal difference alone.