Fernando Torres talks up the North England rivalry
Days before Manchester United and Liverpool take on each other in the first of their ties in the English Premier League; Liverpool’s star striker has come out and started a war of words. Both the clubs are quite fierce rivals and keeping that in mind, Manchester United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson rested a few of his first team players, in their mid-week match against Rangers.
It was been a mixed season so far for both Manchester United and Liverpool. Manchester United gave away a two goal lead in their last Premier League match to draw against Everton at the Goodison Park.
Such a capitulation was not expected from Sir Alex’s team and since then Manchester United have been criticized for taken their win for granted against Everton. Everton, of course are Liverpool’s Merseyside rivals but it is the red half of Merseyside i.e. Liverpool who make the trip north to Manchester on the coming weekend.
Fernando Torres himself has been under focus for his uncharacteristically poor performances and the striker will be looking forward to the match against Manchester United. The Spanish striker is still rusty from all the injuries he sustained over the summer at the World Cup while playing for Spain.
Even after returned as a World Champion from South Africa, Torres has yet to impress for Liverpool in the 2010-2011 English Premier League season.
The rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool is quite an extensive one and perhaps the most violent one in England. Before Sir Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United in the late 80s, Liverpool were the dominant force in English football.
They had dominated the 70’s and the decade of 80’s and were looking to do the same in 90s. In one of his very first interviews as the manager of Manchester United, Ferguson told the press that his aim was to knock Liverpool off “their perch”, something that he has almost achieved since then.
In the 1990s, United emerged as the superior force and won numerous English Premier League titles. In 2000s, Ferguson’s team has continued their rule albeit and few slips that allowed Arsenal and Chelsea to win a few Premiership seasons. Liverpool have not won the English league in the last 18 years and last season they finished seventh in the English Premier League after finishing as runners up to Manchester United in the 2008-2009 Premier League season.
Torres spoke to the media and said that a victory over Manchester United will mean a lot to the Liverpool fans. He went onto say that Manchester United and Liverpool have been two of the most successful teams in England but lack of success over the past eighteen or so years has hurt the Merseysiders. He said it has been difficult for Liverpool’s fans to see Manchester United win so much over the recently concluded years.
The Spanish striker also said that, this year Liverpool have a good manager and a good squad as well. El Nino, as he was known during his time in Spain commented that Liverpool’s fans are great and this season their club will try and give them a trophy which they can celebrate. Liverpool last triumph over Manchester United came in 2009, when they won 4-1 at Old Trafford.
The Liverpool striker praised Wayne Rooney by saying that he is Manchester United’s “stand-out player. He also paid tribute to Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs by saying that both of them have had great starts to the English Premier League season.
Manchester United will be looking to get preserve their unbeaten start to the season as they take on Liverpool, up till now United have won all their games at home i.e. Old Trafford. Ferguson will be expected to bring back the likes of Evra and Berbatov so that United can score a victory over their rivals.
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