Does the traditional rivalry between Man United and Liverpool still exist in practise?

Question

Or it's just an old story and Liverpool have replaced with Chelsea or Arsenal?

Answer 1

It's like the one between Arsenal and Spurs, neighbours that hate each other, but have other rivals too

Arsenal have Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool

Spurs have Stoke, Hull and Bolton

Answer 2

Of course it still exists as the cities are still only 50 miles apart and the two teams are still the most succesful in English football.

I answered this question earlier so I'll give you some background and repost my answer:

In the 60s there were generally pretty good relations between the two teams as our managers were good friends, but it changed sometime in the late sixties to the early seventies.

This is from another site by an older fan who was around at the time:

"It makes me laugh when I read about the hatred now, the rivalry between United and Liverpool was even more intense back then, but we never sang songs about Munich or Hillsborough, this may seem strange but we actually liked each other! We both looked at ourselves as the standard bearers for the North of England, there was respect and admiration by for each other - and that was partly down to the relationship between the two managers and the players of each club, and partly down to Liverpool offering United the pick of their reserves after Munich - the first one's to offer help, our rivalry was limited to the 90 minutes we played, once it was over and bragging rights had been established it was pub time

It was common knowledge that when United played at Anfield, Bobby, Denis along with Roger Hunt and Ian St John went to Shank's house for tea - at Old Trafford it was round at Matt's house

But it was the friendship between him and Matt that was unique, at that time we were in competition with each other for everything, that didn't stop Shankly phoning up for advice, or Busby from giving it -

I remember being at a game around about 1964, Shankly had some anniversary or landmark achievement, so Matt presented him with a Crystal Vase before the game, stone the crows he dragged Matt with him and did a lap of honour around Old Trafford. the only thing louder than the applause was the laughter - imagine that, Liverpool and United fans laughing together!

The bad blood started before the 70s - there was the incident in 1967 when Liverpool fans who had left the game early, stood on the platform of United train station and pelted the Munich Plaque with excrement, as well as smashing the windows of the offices on that side of the ground

Then there was the return match at Anfield later that season when Police hunted for a United fan who had left a Liverpool fan in hospital fighting for his life after being stabbed in the heart - the press had a field day branding us as "animals" etc, what annoyed everyone was the papers hardly said a word when the guys own brother confessed to being the guilty party

Then came the Munich chants, and the cheering for the Argentinian team Estudiantes - on top of that was the United coach being hit with a barrage of missiles, that injured several players as it went up the East Lancs Rd

Irish United fans being beaten up at Lime St as they were making their way home and the owners coach that had taken the Merseyside branch of the supporters club to matches refused to carry the fans anymore as their drivers had received threats to their families

I'm not saying we were angels, but the hatred Liverpool had for us became an obsession they talked about nothing else It all escalated at Old Trafford early in the 69/70 season, Liverpools supporters coaches were attacked and smashed up, several pubs turned into war zones and fighting went on throughout the match up on the old Scoreboard End

It went downhill after that really - they never stopped singing Munich songs - and until Hillsborough we never had anything to shut them up with - now they make claims that they sing Munich songs because we started singing about Hillsborough first."

Add to that the CS gassing of the United team as they arrived at Anfield in 1986, the cups of urine and excrement thrown at United fans in the FA Cup tie a couple of years ago and the attempted tipping of Alan Smith's ambulance by Liverpool fans that day and the repeated vandalism of Old Trafford by LFC "supporters" in recent years those are most of the reasons for the rivalry as it stands today.