The gap stands at 10 points. Go back to last April, however, and it was six years. “We have to accept they are six years ahead of us now,” said Ralf Rangnick after Liverpool beat Manchester United 4-0. It completed a 9-0 aggregate triumph over the league season, the biggest in a rivalry that dates back to 1895.
Rangnick’s penchant for straight talking probably did not endear him to his paymasters – saying United needed “open-heart surgery” was an indictment of the Glazers and Ed Woodward as well as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the players – yet in its own way it was uncontroversial. United had wasted years while Liverpool’s superior strategy had given them a huge advantage. Manchester United managers are not supposed to describe Manchester City or Liverpool are role models but by that stage Rangnick often did. With Liverpool chasing the quadruple and United mired in their worst season since the 1980s, they had greater problems than the lack of diplomacy an interim manager displayed.
