Not long before Anthony Martial ran on to the Old Trafford pitch, skinned Martin Skrtel and spent the rest of the weekend being hyped up as the new Thierry Henry, he was gliding past another Liverpool centre half on the touchline.
Rather than leave Mamadou Sakho on his backside as well, the very, very expensive teenager stopped and shook hands with his fellow Frenchman. All very civil. All very polite. And all very in keeping with the game that was taking place on the pitch. Manchester United v Liverpool over the weekend was ‘nice’. Dull but nice.
I had never seen a clash like it between the two of them, and I certainly don’t ever want to see another one like it.
After 45 minutes I sent out a tweet congratulating both sets of players and the two managers on succeeding in taking all passion, excitement and intensity out of arguably the biggest game in British football.
Remarkable effort from both sets of players and managers to take all passion, intensity & excitement out of a #mufc v #lfc game.
— Mark Chapman (@markchapman) September 12, 2015
I wanted to add ‘enjoyment’ but ran out of characters. So to prove that this column isn’t just me regurgitating my tweets, I’ll add enjoyment in for you dear JOE readers.
Both managers have to accept some blame for the tedium. You can talk about philosophy, phases of play, control and character as much as you want but it boiled down to both Louis van Gaal and Brendan Rodgers being scared stiff of the other side scoring first and instructing their players accordingly.
But at the same time the players themselves lacked an edge. I’m not talking about studs up tackles, the odd elbow or dig, just simply running, harrying, getting stuck in. And if you think I was in my seat longing for Case, Souness, Keane or Robson to return then of course I was, because I love a good tackle but I was also longing for a bit of this…
‘For more than 26 years, I’d always felt compelled to show fire towards them. They were the enemy.
“Their shirt is the only one I won’t allow in my house. I have a big collection of shirts I’ve swapped with other players — but not one from United.”
The words of Steven Gerrard in his new book. In some quarters they have been described as explosive. I would argue they are completely natural.
If anyone understands the rivalry, it’s a local lad who has come through the youth setup to eventually captain the club. All Liverpool fans would expect nothing less from him and actually, all Manchester United fans would expect him to feel like that as well.
Liverpool fans expect Gary Neville to hate Scousers. Neville and Carragher are expected to tease each other – sorry, have great bantz – over Twitter around these games. It is what this fixture is all about. I watched the players on Saturday and couldn’t imagine any of them refusing to swap shirts.
This isn’t just about Manchester United and Liverpool. You know who your club’s biggest rivals are and you want your players to feel the same way you do about that club. Equally you expect the players at your biggest rivals to not like your club, whether it’s Palace and Brighton, Hearts and Hibs or Arsenal and Tottenham.
Were Spurs fans really that surprised when Jack Wilshere said they weren’t very good? Ok, I might have paraphrase him and it might not have been the smartest thing to do it on a microphone in front of thousands of fans and the world’s media while wearing a silly hat but, it was hardly a revelation.
I’m sure Spurs fans would expect Harry Kane to feel the same way about Arsenal, given he is one of their own (and ignoring that one photo of him years ago as a kid for goodness sake). We can’t desperately want players to care, only to hammer them when they show that they do and then bemoan sterile derbies.
Now of course, virtually all of the examples I have used are local lads, but it would be just lazy to say ‘well as soon as you lose the local lads you lose the identity of a club.’ That is obviously a factor but Keane, Robson, Murphy, Ruddock, Ince, Stam, Ferguson, Benitez and others weren’t local and they didn’t hold back in games between Liverpool and United.
It seems to me that the football we watch at the moment is getting more and more clinical, more and more tactical. Players are conditioned more and more, not just physically but mentally. I hear from a lot of people within clubs now that players are thinking less and less for themselves. They are told what to do and when to do it. Where to stand on set plays, who to mark. It is pamphlet and iPad overload for some. Robotic.
One thing the great sportsmen who we all admire have in common is they talk so much about feel. Federer, Tendulkar, O’Sullivan, Messi. Off the cuff, be natural, be true to themselves.
If you can’t be yourself, if you end up being robotic and always following instructions then every game is the same. Every game is just another game and the last thing anybody connected with Manchester United or Liverpool wants is it to become just another game.
