Since joining the Liverpool ECHO in 2018, I’ve been rather fortunate when it comes to reporting on Jurgen Klopp’s side’s clashes with bitter rivals Manchester United.
I’ve worked the famous fixture six times in person over the past six years, with last December’s 0-0 draw at Anfield the first of those clashes the Reds had failed to win. But those five victories, wow. For those of a Liverpool persuasion, each one proved to be more glorious than the last.
My first taste saw Xherdan Shaqiri emerge from the bench to get Jose Mourinho the sack in December 2018, before Alisson Becker’s assisted Mohamed Salah to clinch a 2-0 win 13 months later. As the Brazilian sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate wildly with the Egyptian, the Kop finally decreed, ‘We’re gonna win the league!’ in what would prove to be an historic title-winning year for the Reds.
Fast forward to the 2021/22 season and emphatic misery was on the cards for the Red Devils. Salah would net a memorable hat-trick in an unprecedented 5-0 win at Old Trafford, before Thiago Alcantara was at his majestic best in a 4-0 victory at Anfield in April 2022.
In truth, that latter win is arguably the most overlooked of my mini-list, given that Liverpool would ultimately fall short by a solitary point in the title-race the following month.
But none of that can compare to the scenes that Anfield witnessed on this day last year as Klopp’s men ran riot. For United, falling to an incomprehensible 7-0 loss (SEVEN), this was an entire new level of humiliation.
Virtually everything the Reds touched, went in. They’d ‘only’ register eight shots on target, after all. But after Cody Gakpo cut inside to curl them into a 1-0 lead on the verge of half-time, the second half was, quite frankly, ridiculous as the visitors capitulated.
As Darwin Nunez made it 2-0 moments after the restart, the floodgates opened. Gakpo and the Uruguayan would net braces either side of Salah getting in on the act, before the Egyptian’s own second goal followed.
The highlight of such strikes was the sight of Salah bamboozling Lisandro Martinez before leaving him on his backside, before playing in Gakpo to dink the ball over David De Gea for his second of the day. The visitors’ defending was embarrassing throughout as they failed to mark Liverpool’s players and coughed up possession cheaply time and again.
Then, late on, the cherry on the cake. The sight of Roberto Firmino making it 7-0, just two days after it had been confirmed that he would leave the club at the end of his contract in the summer. The subsequent rendition of ‘Si Senor’ was deafening as Kopites looked on in jubilant disbelief.
Of course, such feelings were shared by two of Liverpool’s favourite sons. We have all taken great delight at the sight of Jamie Carragher jumping up and down with inconceivable regularity in delight next to a disconsolate Gary Neville, with the pair on Sky Sports’ commentary duty. Unsurprisingly, he would mock his sparring partner on more than one occasion on social media.
Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard was spotted punching the air in delight in the stands in a video published on fellow club legend Ian Rush’s TikTok channel.
But while all those of a Reds persuasion were left revelling at this impossible thrashing, it was a very different story for their rival Manchester United legends. Neville was not the only inconsolable Red Devils icon.
