Sunday marks the 245th meeting between England’s two most decorated clubs. Boasting an extraordinary 137 trophies between them, there have been some superstars to grace this fixture over the decades.
The constant sparring of success between these two heavyweights has brought up classic after classic, but who have been Liverpool’s standout performers who stand a little taller than the rest?
4. Robbie Fowler
Robbie Fowler is one of Liverpool’s most deadly finishers in their entire history. He was capable of scoring from any and all angles, even those that defy logic. Some will say Luis Suarez was our most lethal, but Fowler was right up there with him.
A local boy turned superstar, he understands what it meant to play for Liverpool and therefore, understood what the derby meant.
He played in a team that was regularly second best to United. We were still living off the success of the mid to late 80’s and found ourselves in quite a decline. Whilst we were tending down, Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United were trending up.
Shy of our treble in 2001, we didn’t have much to shout about, so we had to put it all into the derby.
Unfortunately, I was only a pup when Fowler was at his piercing best, but through growing up watching Premier League Years on Sky Sports and now having the luxury of the internet, watching him play seemed almost abnormal to his era.
He wouldn't look out of place in a modern-day front line, and you can’t say that about everybody who played in the 90s.
He found the net 6 times against United in a Liverpool shirt and then almost made it his career mission to join any rival of the Manchester club. He scored or assisted for Leeds and Man City against them and will forever be a thorn in their side.
3. Fernando Torres
Even to this day, it’s hard to talk about Fernando Torres without having some kind of adverse reaction.
Our golden boy from Spain, who was brought in to bring us one step closer to a title we hadn’t held for well over a decade.
He took to the Kop like a duck to water, and he had the city in the palm of his hand. He was worshipped by the Scousers and feared by everybody else, and that’s why we loved him.
The ending wasn’t befitting of the start, so the less said about that, the better, but you can’t mention El Niño’s name and Manchester United in the same sentence without ‘that’ image coming to the front of your mind.
We were playing away at Old Trafford, a place we very rarely played well, let alone picked up any points. United were dominating teams left, right and centre and were on course for their 2nd title in a row in an eventual Premier League treble between 2006 & 2009.
We quickly went one-nil down, which was to be expected. Gerrard equalized from the spot, and then the storm of El Niño was released.
Nemanja Vidic was shining his fanciest shoes in anticipation of collecting his first Premier League Player of the Season trophy, but Fernando decided to humble him slightly.
An out-of-character Vidic misjudges a long ball forward, and Torres pounces. He flies past Vidic, takes the ball away from him and leaves the Serbian in a heap on the Old Trafford turf.
He still had it all to do, but as he calmly slotted his effort past a scrambling Edwin van der Sar, he set in motion a rare victory in Manchester and wrote himself into Liverpool folklore.
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