Do not underestimate Old Trafford, it can make even Liverpool greats freeze

New signings at Liverpool and United and will be forewarned by team-mates and staff to expect a game different to anything else they will experience during the season, but you have to live it to understand it. Time and again we see how often the challenge is too much for those playing at Old Trafford or Anfield for the first time in an away shirt.

Across the entirety of the 1980s, when Liverpool were for a long time the best side in Europe and finished outside of the top two just once, they enjoyed a solitary league victory at Old Trafford. They won there only once in the 1990s, too.

Those two wins in 20 years made me especially proud to be part of a side that reversed that trend in the early 2000s when we won three times at Old Trafford in four seasons. But that was an anomaly. There have been 12 Liverpool defeats and five league wins at Old Trafford…