FA Cup: United versus  Liverpool promises a lot but has not delivered 

THE standout fixture of the FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend is tomorrow’s meeting of Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford. A fixture that over the years has elicited an excited reaction from fans and casual observers alike. The meeting of England’s two most successful sides and bitter local rivals tends to have that effect.

And while some of the recent seasons’ encounters have seen some rather unbalanced results, and that both teams seem to be currently on drastically different trajectories, it would be foolish of any side or fan to presume a result might be in the bag. Simply because that bag carries… well, a lot of baggage.

The last time these sides met in the FA Cup was back in January 2021, when United came out on top of a close 3-2 scoreline, as Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, and Bruno Fernandes saw off a brace of Mo Salah goals.

Then United proceeded to lose the next three Premier League encounters on a historically bad 13-2 aggregate score. Including a humiliating 5-0 home defeat that effectively ended the reign of United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to the gleeful chants of the Liverpool ers g ‘Ole’s at the wheel, Ole’s at the wheel!’ ringing in his ears as he departed the field.

It was a result no United fan could ever have envisaged and, in that light, demanded a new boss. Interim boss Ralf Rangnick then supervised a 4-0 defeat at Anfield, so when Erik ten Hag took the helm, the belief was that the only way was up and indeed his first game against Liverpool saw the Dutch boss lead his side to a 2-1 win at Old Trafford, on a day when most pundits had his United in line for another drubbing. Instead, two goals from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, before a late Salah consolation, saw United claim their first Premier League win against Liverpool in nine games.

False dawn?

All of a sudden, the prospects for United and Ten Hag looked a lot more promising as it seemed the Dutchman was steering his side back into successful waters. However, rougher seas were on the way and the United side have struggled since then to maintain any long-term successful run in any competition, and once again coming a cropper to Liverpool in Anfield in March of last year when the Red Devils went down 7-0 to Liverpool in a record-equaling defeat for United.

Ten Hag’s men claimed a measure of respectability earlier this season when they held a particularly toothless Liverpool side that day to a 0-0 all draw. However, few people, even diehard United fans, would be confident that their side are anywhere near being genuine contenders especially in the league.

It appears that the United’s rejuvenation process is going to take a lot more time and patience before it is back to the level the fans demand. But with this being their only chance of silverware this year, there will be an expectation that the side throws everything at this, with the added bonus of upsetting the hated Liverpool to boot.

Motivations

In a dramatically different set of circumstances for their opponents, Jurgen Klopp continues Liverpool’s drive for the quadruple, on his farewell tour of the stadiums of England and Europe. Personified by some miraculous and impressive results, including their 11-2 aggregate victory over Sparta Prague in the last 16 round of the Europa League on Thursday evening.

The advantage for United is that with there being so much on Klopp and Liverpool’s plate, they may be open to an upset, especially when United really have no such distractions other than the FA Cup.

United have nothing to lose by throwing the kitchen sink at Liverpool with a big reward if they can succeed. However, Liverpool have shown their ability to adapt to every set of circumstances this season, and have done better than anyone expected during their recent run of matches when they were minus up to 13 first-team players due to injury.

Happily, for them, many of those injured players are making their full return, most notably Salah, who as we have seen, enjoys scoring against United. And with a strong momentum it will be hard to knock the Merseysiders off track.

Ten Hag looks like he will have some good injury news too, with reports this week that Rasmus Hojlund will make an earlier than expected return to the first team. And prior to his injury, he was having his best run of success in front of goal that mirrored United's best return this season too.

Whether United are focused and Liverpool are distracted, whether United are going to stick with Ten Hag or Liverpool can give the appropriate goodbye to Klopp, these two sides have not provided us with a thrilling encounter for many a long year now. So maybe we are well overdue a confrontation that lives up to the meeting of England’s two most successful sides.