SEAN GOLLOGLY

Weblog: RFO editor

Liverpool should be yearning for yesterday

PICK of the weekend fixtures is at Old Trafford where Man United face Liverpool.

We could go through the more traditional match analysis but the bottom line is that United win this.

Forget about the Reds' recent FA Cup win over United at Anfield, this one's at Old Trafford and Fergie's mob don't really do defeat there - the Red Devils have won eight of the
last ten meetings in Manchester.

Furthermore, the Andy Carroll/Luis Suarez partnership is certainly not as prolific as Toshack/Keegan or Rush plus A N Other, never mind Lennon and McCartney.

How the Kop must yearn for the days ofBill Shankly and The Beatles.

The emergence of Liverpool as a football powerhouse coincided with the rise of Merseybeat in the early '60s, with the Reds winning the title for the first time since 1947 in 1963–64 and then repeating the feat in1965–66.

With Liverpool dominating the airwaves, so the team began to outgun United in the trophy hunting stakes, notwithstanding United's title in 1967 and famous European Cup win in '68.

The 80s saw the Reds pick up six more titles and two European Cups as, spurred on by a new wave of pop acts like Echo & the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dalglish and Liverpool ruled the roost.

However, the balance of power in music and therefore football was changing with the emergence of New Order and the Madchester music scene of the Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets and Happy Mondays.

Liverpool won their last title in 1990while United picked up their first since '67 in the 1992/93 season. Man City-supporting Oasis went global in the mid-90s and United haven't stopped winning since.

So unless Kenny comes out at Old Trafford sporting a Frankie Says Relax t-shirt and has managed to find a flux capacitor for his DeLorean, the clear conclusion of our scientific study is that the Reds will not lift the Premier League title until the music scene in Liverpool reasserts its dominance.

Sean is the editor of the Racing & Football Outlook newspaper