As Mohamed Salah celebrated his second goal in Liverpool’s 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United, breaking Robbie Fowler’s record as the Reds’ all-time leading Premier League goalscorer in the process, the scenes evoked memories of another famous win over the Red Devils just three years earlier.
The Egyptian celebrated by removing his shirt and throwing it up into the air, as he had done when scoring in the last-minute to clinch a 2-0 victory over United in January 2020. Coming in Liverpool’s Premier League-winning year, such a victory gave the Reds a 16-point lead over runners-up Man City, while also boasting a game in hand.
It was at that moment that the Kop declared that Liverpool would win the league, not that the dressing room were in a position to admit such a fact themselves at the time.
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Andy Robertson would play down the possibility of winning the title when speaking directly after the final whistle following that 2-0 win over United.
“Until the champions sign is above our heads we don’t believe anything,” he said. “Yes, the lead is 16 points but we know how tough it gets.
“We will let other people say that [we will not drop enough points to lose the title] but I don’t think anyone in that dressing room is believing that just yet and I think you can see that with every performance we are putting in. We can believe once the final whistle of that game goes.”
Yet he would later admit in his book, ‘Now you’re gonna believe us…’ that that victory over United was when the Liverpool dressing room started to believe.
“I knew United would like nothing better than to derail us, so I was determined not to get caught up in the expectation that was growing on a daily basis,” the Scot admitted. “Games against United are always tough and this one had been no different but in the seconds after that goal went in, it felt like there was a surge of electricity going around the ground.
“Then, it started. ‘And now you’re gonna believe us. And now you’re gonna believe us. And now you’re gonna believe us – we’re gonna win the league’. Over and over again, louder and louder, a chant suddenly became a declaration.
“This wasn’t hope, it wasn’t even a statement of intent, this was the Anfield crowd telling everyone who was willing to listen and plenty more besides that their team was going to be champions.
“I have to confess, though, that for a split second after it started I just thought, ‘Please don’t’. But then the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and immediately I understood. Two seconds later, I was joining in. The emotions that this one song stirred are indescribable.
“It felt like an approval from the fans and a sign of good times to come. That day they wanted to sing that song to their rivals. The way it made me feel, the shockwaves it sent through my body when they started singing it, I thought then that we would go on and do it.
“I still get shivers thinking about that. That was the moment when we thought: We aren’t letting these people down. At that point, I think I went from thinking we could become champions to believing we would become champions.
“Of course, we couldn’t come out and say it and none of us would, but there’s no question that everything felt right. There was a definite shift and in hindsight it had probably been building for a bit before the United game, I just hadn’t been ready to acknowledge what the supporters already knew.”
Publicly the Liverpool dressing room would still bat away such talk, insisting they were just taking the title race just one game at a time and weren’t even talking about the possibility of ending the Reds’ 30-year drought to be crowned champions of England amongst themselves.
Such a sentiment was again echoed last season as Liverpool chased down an unprecedented quadruple, only to see their efforts fall agonisingly short as they were left to settle for a domestic cup double instead.
“You can mention whatever you want!” Virgil van Dijk told TalkSPORT when asked about a potential quadruple after beating Man City in the FA Cup semi-finals. “I won’t mention it because it’s something we don’t speak about.
“We hear these things from the media, trying to put even more pressure on us than we already have, but we don’t care to be fair. I just focus on the game ahead of us.”
“It’s not spoken about, we don’t speak about it,” Robertson also insisted to TalkSPORT. “Let’s see where we end up in May, but we’re focused on the next game, that’s where we need to be. We let our fans dream but we keep focused on the next game.”
Professional answers from two linchpins of Liverpool’s recent success, and exactly what you would expect from two players who have won every major honour with the Reds.
Such an attitude is a sign of their experience and mentality, with Jurgen Klopp’s side refusing to take anything for granted or get too carried away - even when 16 points clear in a Premier League title race. In truth, it is partly why they have won the honours they have in recent years.
Yet, the feeling in the Old Trafford dressing room appears to be rather different by comparison. After all, after winning the League Cup against Newcastle United last month, there was already talk of United having an outside chance of winning a quadruple.
“We win the first one now and still have three to go so, yeah, hungry for more,” striker Wout Weghorst said after that Wembley win. “First one is in and we have to stand still and enjoy it. We have everything in our own hands so let’s go.”
Yet United were third in the Premier League at the time of the Dutchman’s claim, six points off second-placed Man City and eight points behind league-leaders Arsenal. Meanwhile, they’re in the FA Cup quarter-finals against Fulham and Europa League, not Champions League, round-of-16 against Real Betis, while that League Cup win was the Red Devils’ first trophy for six years.
In contrast, Liverpool were reigning European and World champions, having won the Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, and European Super Cup in the months before Reds fans declared, ‘We’re gonna win the league,’ after beating United to build that 16-point lead in January 2020. Meanwhile, they were batting away quadruple talk, despite their previous successes, even when just a point behind Man City in the title-race, with an FA Cup final to look forward to while also competing in the Champions League semi-finals.
United manager Erik ten Hag has been quick to silence any talk of a quadruple, yet it would seem the dressing room has allowed itself to get carried away.
The Daily Mail would report that there was a growing feeling among the players that the Premier League title was a genuine target. Meanwhile, in the players’ WhatsApp group, they had reportedly spoken about the prospect of catching the top two.
“Our standards have clearly dropped since we won that trophy,” United defender Luke Shaw would admit after Sunday’s 7-0 loss at Anfield. In 90 minutes Liverpool put a dent in the Red Devils’ feel-good factor, to stop any title and quadruple talk.
After such a loss, United are now nine points behind City and 14 points off Arsenal. Even before their trip to Anfield, they were closer to a sixth-placed Liverpool than the top. Now the Reds are up to fifth, just three points off the top four and seven behind their bitter-rivals. There is more chance of Klopp’s men leapfrogging Ten Hag’s side as they chase down the top four than the Premier League title going to Old Trafford this season.
United are enjoying a much better season than Liverpool of course, with their supporters revelling in how their side had seemingly made a mockery of former caretaker manager Ralf Rangnick’s claim that the Red Devils were six years behind the Reds.
He would infamously declare as much, while also suggesting up to 10 new signings were needed, after United’s last thrashing at Anfield when they fell to a 4-0 defeat last April.
But while ahead of Liverpool in the Premier League table, for now, the hint at a difference in mentality between the two sides is intriguing. When on top, the ever-professional Reds still didn't even dare to dream. In contrast, this ill-placed confidence in the United dressing room, off the back of actually achieving relatively little yet, has shown how right Rangnick actually was.
United might think they're contenders again, but Liverpool have shown that their rivals remain some way off. The next challenges for Klopp's men are to clinch a top four spot this term - and climb even higher again next season.
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